As housing affordability continues to be a lightning rod for complaints of growing economic inequality in Australia, shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen has laid out his party's case for reducing or removing particular tax concessions ' specifically, negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts ' that he says are pushing home ownership beyond the reach of many. He claims ownership rates for young people aged 25-34 have spiralled downwards in recent years from 60 per cent to 48 per cent. Is he correct? RMIT ABC Fact Check found Mr Bowen's claim is in the ballpark. What counts as "recent" is debatable, but given the typical pace of change in the housing market, RMIT ABC Fact Check assessed the last ten years of ownership rates. None of these rates match the exact figures cited by Mr Bowen, nor do they clearly show the equivalent 20 per cent drop. But they do reveal large declines in ownership for 25-34 year-olds over the last decade or so. Based on three datasets that use different methodologies and span different years, these falls ranged from 12 per cent (over ten years) to 28 percent (over 12 and 13 years). Experts said young people's ownership rates have been declining for decades, and told Fact Check that falls in the last decade were comparable to those in the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s.
Verdict: In the ballpark