Fewer younger Australians now own their own home than 50 years ago, as more low-income households find themselves in rental stress.
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The Australian Health and Welfare Institute's 2019 report card on the welfare of Australians has shown the dream of owning a home is getting further out of reach for the younger generation.
It shows the rate of home ownership among people aged 25 to 29 declined from 50 per cent in 1971 to 37 per cent in 2016.
Similarly, the rate of home ownership among people aged 30 to 34 dropped from 64 per cent in 1971 to 50 per cent in 2016.
And with that decline, more and more people are renting.
The number of people in the private rental market aged under 35 years has risen from 47 per cent in 2006 to 54 per cent in 2016.
The number of renters in the 35-54 age bracket also rose from 21 per cent to 27 per cent in the same period.
However the spike in the number of people renting was not limited to younger people.
People are spending a higher proportion of their incomes on housing than in the past.
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
The number older renters also increased from 8.9 per cent in 2006 to 11 per cent in 2016.
Meanwhile more low income households are finding themselves in rental stress.
"People are spending a higher proportion of their incomes on housing than in the past," the report said.
"The proportion of households spending less than a quarter of their income on housing is shrinking. The proportion spending more than half is growing."
The number of households spending more than half their income on housing jumped from 4.6 per cent in 1995 to 5.5 per cent in 2018.
In the ACT, the number of lower income households in rental stress rose from 39.4 per cent in 2008 to 42.7 per cent in 2018.
Nationally, the rental stress rate increased from 35 per cent to 43.1 per cent in the same period.
The rate of homelessness in the ACT also bucked the national trend.
It rose from 30.4 per 1000 in 2001 to 40.2 in 2016.
Australia-wide, the rate actually fell from 50.8 per 1000 in 2001 to 49.8 in 2016.
The most common form of homelessness was living in severely overcrowded housing.
Of those who were homeless on Census night in 2016, 44 per cent were in severely overcrowded dwellings, and 18 per cent were in supported accommodation.
Fifteen per cent were staying in other households, another 15 per cent were in boarding houses and 7 per cent were sleeping rough.
