Sydney’s home ownership plummets to 1950s levels

Sydney homeownership levels have crashed to a 70-year low as high home prices and building shortages push more young people into becoming long-term renters. KPMG analysis has revealed the city’s homeownership rate, which measures the total number of dwellings occupied by someone who owns the property outright or with a mortgage, slumped to 59.9 per cent in the past year. This was a drop from the 61.1 per cent ownership rate in 2021 and the lowest level since the 1950s. KPMG Urban Economist Terry Rawnsley noted that the drop in home ownership had occurred despite considerable government investment in homebuyer support packages. “Sydney has gone backwards on home ownership by more than half a century,” Mr Rawnsley said. “There’s lots of schemes like the first home by deposit scheme, which I think is a good one across the country, but the challenge for Sydney is it just hasn’t produced enough houses over the last 20 years. “First homebuyers in Sydney are really just being constricted in the number of properties that they can even look to try and buy, even before affordability comes in.” Source: KPMG The analysis combined Census and ABS housing survey statistics with rental bond data t...