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The proportion of Sydney residents who live in a home they own has slumped to a 70-year low as the high cost of property reshapes ownership patterns across the city.
Greater Sydney’s owner-occupier rate hit a multi-decade low of 59.9 per cent in 2025 having tumbled almost 9 percentage points in 15 years, analysis by consultancy KPMG shows.
Home ownership in the city peaked at around 68 per cent in the mid-1990s but has fallen steadily since 2011 amid a rapid increase in property prices. The ownership rate has collapsed despite a range of generous government programs to help first time buyers enter the housing market.
Terry Rawnsley, a KPMG urban economist who wrote the study, said Sydney has gone backwards on home ownership over more than half a century.
“The city probably has not seen ownership rates this low since the late 1950s, which shows just how far affordability has moved against households trying to buy where they live,” he said.
“It’s pretty tough in the Sydney housing market.”
Since mid-2011 Sydney’s median house price has risen from $646,000 to $1.79m, Domain data shows.
Around four out of 10 Sydney households are now tenants, up from three out of 10 in 2011. (In 2025, 38 per cent were traditional tenants while another 2 per cent had non-traditional tenancy arrangements including rent-free occupation and employer-related accommodation.)
Rental market conditions are challenging for the city’s growing community of tenants. Sydney’s median weekly asking rent surged by more than 6 per cent in the June quarter to a record $850, Domain figures show.
The median weekly asking rent for units reached $750, also a record. Rental vacancy rates in Sydney are near record lows just above 1 per cent, despite government efforts to boost the supply of housing.
Unjustified increases
Coogee tenant Amalie Heggemsnes has lived in four rented homes during the past six years.
She appreciates the flexibility that comes with being a tenant but feels the annual rent increases asked by real estate agents and landlords are often unjustified.
“Being a young renter, I think people can take advantage of us needing somewhere to live,” said the 28-year-old HR adviser.
Heggemsnes’ flatmate, James Caspersz-Loney, said living in a rented shared house provides a “sense of community” but is concerned his housing costs eats up so much income.
“I’ve got a decent job and a pretty good wage, but that’s still not enough to pay rent and save,” said the 26-year-old digital sales coordinator.
Caspersz-Loney feels buying a house in Sydney is increasingly “beyond reach”; he may eventually emulate friends who purchased property in a less expensive location.
“I have a few mates who bought in Newcastle recently because they couldn’t afford to buy a house in Sydney,” he said.
Leo Patterson Ross, chief executive of the Tenants’ Union of NSW, which advocates on behalf of renters, said there are not enough genuinely affordable rental homes in Sydney that meet the needs and wants of tenants in the locations they need.
“For many people, the only choice has become about how much to compromise on the quality of housing – whether that’s moving into a dwelling that is more affordable by changing locations away from their connections or reducing the size, quality or safety of the home,” he said.
The KPMG study shows NSW – and especially Sydney – is dragging down the home ownership rate for the country. Nationally, the proportion of owner-occupier households dropped from 66.3 per cent to 65.9 per cent between 2021 and 2025, but if NSW is stripped out from those national numbers, the owner-occupier rate remained roughly unchanged in the period.
Rawnsley said the distribution of home ownership is being reshaped in favour of the other states, with Sydney losing ground relative to the rest of the country.
“In 2011, the owner-occupier rate in Sydney was the same as the rest of the country at 68.4 per cent,” he said. “Fast forward to 2025, and Sydney’s rate has fallen below 60 per cent, while the rest of the country remains significantly higher at 67.4 per cent.”
A key factor in Sydney’s declining home ownership rate has been the exodus of workers in their 20s, 30s and 40s to other parts of Australia.
“That younger cohort is getting priced out of Sydney, and they’re taking their home ownership interstate,” said Rawnsley.
Rawnsley does not expect an immediate improvement in Sydney’s home ownership level but said government policies to lift the supply of dwellings appropriate for first home buyers will help “stabilise” the rate.
“In addition to boosting housing supply, levelling the playing field for first home buyers and supporting them to access home ownership sooner are important reforms,” he said.
The KPMG study drew on census data along with ABS housing survey figures and state-level rental bond data to estimate owner-occupier rates. The analysis included people living in a home they own and occupy. It did not take account of the small proportion that own a property but rent.
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Matt Wade is a senior economics writer at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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