Home ownership too hard for young: study00:09:16
Home ownership too hard for young: study
HOME ownership among young Australians has rapidly declined and incomes have flatlined, meaning an increased likelihood of paying rent well into retirement.
New statistics from the University of Melbourne’s long-term HILDA study show a growing wealth divide across generations, with more young people living at home than in 2001.
Home ownership among 18 to 39-year-olds has declined rapidly since 2001, from 36 per cent down to 25 per cent in 2015.
Professor Roger Wilkins authored the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey and says young people are being locked out of the housing market.
“It’s creating a lot of negative sentiment among people in this age group,” he told AAP.
“It seems aspirations for home ownership haven’t really diminished a great deal. The attitude is they would like to be buying homes and they are finding it much more difficult.”
Every year HILDA surveys the same 17,000 people as part of Australia’s longest- running population study. Prof Wilkins said if the housing market stays unaffordable then young people may never live in their own property.
“We’re looking at a large proportion of this cohort never owning a home and that will have implications for their wellbeing, particularly in retirement, having to pay market rents,” he said.
“Currently well over 80 per cent of retirees own their home, which makes things a lot easier when your income declines.”
Prof Wilkins said household incomes grew strongly to 2009 and slightly between 2009 and 2012, but since then they have, on average, stopped growing. “A society where incomes aren’t growing can cause problems, disaffection,” he said.
Even though young people will have more superannuation than current retirees, Prof Wilkins warns they may end up using a lot of it to pay off a home loan. Young adults are also living with their parents longer: 60 per cent of men aged 22 to 25 and 48 per cent of women the same age were living with their parents in 2015.
That’s up from 43 per cent and 27 per cent respectively in 2001. The study also found attitudes are getting more progressive, with a majority now agreeing that “gay couples deserve the same rights as straight couples”. Hannah McCann, a lecturer in gender studies at the University of Melbourne, said from 2005 to 2015 men went from disagreeing to agreeing with that statement, while women went from neutral to a strong agreement.
“That’s the biggest change in attitudes towards marriage, children and parenting … in the survey,” Dr McCann told AAP.
AUSTRALIA BY THE HILDA NUMBERS
• Survey interviews the same 17,000 people every year since 2001
• Home ownership among 18 to 39-year-olds has declined rapidly since 2001, from 36 per cent down to 25 per cent in 2015
• From 2002 to 2014, the average home debt of young homeowners with mortgages increased by 99 per cent in real terms, from $169,000 to $337,000
• 60 per cent of men aged 22 to 25, and 48 per cent of women in the same age bracket, were living with their parents — up from 43 per cent and 27 per cent respectively in 2001
• About 40 per cent of adults gamble at least once a month, mostly on lottery games, while about two per cent of those identify as “problem gamblers”
• Support for equal rights for gay couples rose from 32 per cent in 2005 to 59 per cent in 2015 among men, and from 43 per cent to 67 per cent among women
• Overall poverty has continued to fall, but child poverty in single-parent families has risen
• Median weekly child care expenditure has risen $162 for couple families and $114 for single-parent families between 2002 and 2015
• Household incomes have on average stopped growing since 2012, with Sydney having the smallest rate of growth in median income
• The average retirement age for men has increased from 62.1 in the early 2000s to 66.1 between 2012 and 2015
• For women the retirement age increased from 61.3 in the early 2000s to 63.8 over the same period
