The limits of housing policy: Home ownership in Australia

This paper provides an overview of the history of owner occupation rates and policies in Australia, starting from the first Commonwealth census in 1911 and continuing to the most recent in 1991, with particular emphasis on the recent past. The ownership rate grew by only a few percentage points between the 1911 and 1947 censuses, but then increased rapidly from 53 per cent in 1947 to 70 per cent in 1961. However, in spite of extensive promotion of home ownership by the Commonwealth and state governments, ownership rates in Australia have been more or less stable ever since. In a re‐interpretation of Australia's experience with owner occupation, we argue that economic and demographic circumstances are much more important than previous policy‐oriented accounts have allowed.