'Alarm bells': The ongoing reality for these Australians as 1940s phenomenon takes hold

The number of younger Australians who own their own homes has stagnated, sitting at around the same levels recorded during World War Two, as the cost of living and rents rise.

Fewer than 40 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds were listed as homeowners in the 2021 Census, and that rate is expected to have fallen since, according to analysis from social welfare charity Anglicare Australia.

This is equivalent to the homeownership rate recorded in the 1940s, before the post-war boom took hold as multiple policies prioritised construction and housing for veterans.

At the same time, home prices and rents have risen, putting pressure on younger Australians to save for a mortgage while living away from home.

A recent report from property data company Cotality has shown that rents in some parts of Australia have soared by 80 per cent over the last five years, since COVID-era rent freezes were lifted.

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Anglicare Australia said that support lines for younger people are dominated by stress over housing security and related bills.

"It's almost impossible to have a call from a younger person who doesn’t mention the stress of rents or bills," Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers told SBS News.

"They are studying, working and contributing. But they are earning less than the generations before them, being locked out of housing, and struggling to build the security that past generations took for granted."

Home ownership has steadily declined across age groups since the 1970s, but younger Australians have felt the sharpest declines, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Angela Jackson, an economist at the Productivity Commission, the Australian government's independent economic advisory body, said home ownership is particularly hard for lower socioeconomic groups.

"It is a lot more expensive relative to people's incomes to get into the housing market than it was for Gen Z's parents or grandparents," she told SBS News.

Home ownership rates have declined generation on generation in Australia, off the back of the housing boom in the post-war era.

Liz Allen, a demographer and social researcher from ANU, described 1940s Australians as going through "tough times".