Australians under 30 consider home ownership to be more important than other life factors such as their career and travel, according to new research.

A survey commissioned by comparethemarket.com.au has revealed that younger demographics rate buying a property as the third highest life factor behind health and family.

Nearly 1300 Australians were asked to consider how important certain ‘life factors’ were on a scale of one to five, with 1 being not important and 5 being very important.

At a glance:

• A survey commissioned by comparethemarket.com.au has found Australians under 30 are prioritising home ownership over other life factors such as career and travel.
• Of the 11 'life factors', home ownership came in third behind health and family.
• Other demographics also rated owning a home highly in the survey.

These were broken up into 11 categories - health, education, home ownership, career, the environment, wealth, travel, car ownership, their partner, friends and family.

The results revealed that under-30s rated owning a house at 4.0, the third highest life factor.

Following this was accumulating wealth (3.9), career (3.9), education (3.8), car ownership (3.6) and travel (3.6).

Owning a house was also ranked highly across all respondent pools, with most groups valuing this life factor at the same level as under-30s.

According to the results, 30 to 50-year-olds ranked home ownership at 4.0, while 50 to 70-year-olds also ranked it 4.0 and over-70s ranked it 3.7.

Rod Attrill from comparethemarket.com.au said the data showed that many young Australians were willing to compromise on travel and even car ownership to be able to afford their own home.

“Owning your own home has always been part of the Australian dream," he said.

"When undertaking such a huge financial investment, it is vital to shop around to find a home loan that fits with your lifestyle and budget."

More enquiries for lower-cost new builds

Lower-cost new builds are the best way to help people get into their first home, according to Thrive Homes general manager Patrick Eather.

Thrive Homes, which specialises in reduced cost project home builds, has seen an uptick in enquiries and has been given a further boost from the First Home Buyers Loan Scheme announced as part of the election campaign and speculation around falling interest rates. 

“We saw on average, a 50 per cent increase in our usual display visitation numbers in the weekend following the election and in the last two days alone we have taken a handful of deposits," he said.

“First home buyers are excited by the proposed changes to APRA guidelines announced last week which will put more money in their pockets, but it’s even more important to make sure that they have access to high-spec homes at affordable prices and that’s where we come in."

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