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Three in five Australian renters say they expect they will never own their own home — a significant shift that requires rethinking of tax and housing systems highlights new AHURI research. The research, ‘Planning for a two-tenure Australia’, undertaken for AHURI by researchers from The University of Adelaide, University of South Australia, Swinburne University of Technology and McMaster University, examines the changes in Australia’s tenure market (i.e. homeownership and rental markets) over the recent past and what this means for housing in the near future. In particular, it considers how government policies might need to change to support all Australians in a two tier housing market of owners and renters in retirement. More than half of renters expect they will never own their own home However most people want to be homeowners; one of the research project’s surveys reveals that only one in five (19 per cent) participants who rented privately said that renting met their housing aspirations, while the remaining four out of five (78 per cent) aspired to owning their home. A second research survey revealed that 51.5 per cent of private renters rented because they did not have enough money for a home deposit, and 41.7 per cent said they could not afford to buy anything appropriate. Proportion of renters is rising across most age brackets, with cities having worse outcomes ‘It’s not just younger people being affected,’ says Professor Baker. Between 2011 and 2021, across Australia the proportion of people renting in the private rental market has increased in all age brackets - from 20 year olds through to people aged 80 years and above. Over the next 20 years, rental rates are expected to keep growing with overall home ownership forecast to fall from 67 to 63 per cent. ‘The ‘rise of renting’ in Australia is a multigenerational phenomenon,’ says Professor Baker. Government economic policies need to adapt to increasing proportion of renters ‘The policy challenge is to make renting a good, long term, stable housing tenure for renters, particularly for lower-income, older renters with limited superannuation,’ says Professor Baker. Opportunities to create a fairer housing and tax system for private market renters ‘Current government policy is rightly focused on low-income households who have insecure tenure. Our research identified two further groups of renters that could be of policy interest in the future to create a fairer housing and tax system,’ says Professor Baker.
‘To help these groups build resources to face renting in retirement they could, for example, be compensated through tax benefits on non-property investment opportunities such as financial investment products, and superannuation. This would also reduce the need for householders to ‘rentvest’, which can be seen as a form of over consumption of housing leading to higher house prices,’ says Professor Baker. The report will be announced on the AHURI website at https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/431 |
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