COVID drives big rise in home ownership rate

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Last week, Dr Cameron Murray predicted that the 2021 Census would record a rare rise in Australia’s home ownership rate:

Since the last census in 2016, first home buyers have been large a proportion of all new mortgage lending, consistent with the 1991-2006 period of slightly rising homeownership (up from 68.8% to 69.8%).

But the stark change recently is the decline in investor lending in the market since 2016. In the 2011-16 period, investor lending was 39.4%, but since 2016 it has been 30.8% on average. Not buying and selling are somewhat equivalent asset investment options for investors. They both reduce the allocation to housing (just like not selling and buying keep more of an investment portfolio in property). We can then infer that the decline in investor buying is likely related to more investors selling…

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.