Home ownership in Australia: data and trends

• Tony Kryger
• Information and Research Services

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13 February 2009Around 70 per cent of Australian households own or are purchasing their home. The rate of home ownership has remained remarkably stable at this level for over four decades according to data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in its Census of Population and Housing and its Survey of Income and Housing (SIH). The proportion of Australian households who own their home outright (that is, without a mortgage) has been far from stable. Based on data from the Census, the rate of outright home ownership fell from 45 per cent in 1947 to 32 per cent in 1976, rising to 43 per cent in 1996 before falling again to 35 per cent in 2006. Data from the SIH for the period 1995–96 to 2005–06 show a similar marked fall in the rate of outright home ownership, falling from 43 to 34 per cent.