Give me the % rate of young people renting homes in 2024 compared to 1980s in victoria australia
Executive summary
Young Victorians are far more likely to be renting now than in the 1980s, but the sources provided do not contain a single definitive statistic that pins the exact percentage of “young people renting” in Victoria in 2024 and directly compares it to the 1980s; the best concrete long‑run comparator available is that home‑ownership among people in their early 30s fell from 64% in 1981 to 41% by 2016—a 23 percentage‑point decline that implies a roughly equivalent rise in non‑ownership (including renting) among that cohort [1]. Other Victorian and national reporting documents confirm a strong upward trend in renting through to the 2010s and 2020s but do not provide the precise 2024 age‑specific Victorian share requested [2] [3] [4].
1. How the question breaks down — what “% rate” means and why the record is fragmented
Asking for “the % rate of young people renting homes in 2024 compared to 1980s in Victoria” requires (a) a clear age band for “young people,” (b) a specific tenure measure (renters as share of that age group, or share of households in that age group that rent), and (c) consistent geographic coverage limited to Victoria; the available sources give reliable decade‑by‑decade tenure change for cohorts (e.g. early‑30s ownership change) and statewide rental trends but do not include a single ready‑made, age‑specific Victorian 2024 renter percentage to compare to an exact 1980s baseline [1] [2] [4].
2. What the hard numbers say for a close proxy (early‑30s ownership → implied renting change)
The Australian Institute of Family Studies reports that the proportion of people in their early 30s who owned their home (with or without a mortgage) fell from 64% in 1981 to 41% in 2016, a 23 percentage‑point drop, which—holding other tenure categories constant—implies a similar increase in renting or other non‑ownership tenures for that cohort over that period [1]. That figure is the clearest age‑specific long‑run comparator in the supplied material and establishes a substantial shift away from ownership among young adults since the early 1980s [1].
3. Victorian context and national cross‑checks — trend confirmation, not a tidy 2024 figure
Victorian sources and national analyses confirm the picture of rising renting: the Victorian Commissioner for Residential Tenancies notes the rental sector “changed significantly” and that the number of renter households rose by more than 60% in the 20 years to 2016 [2], while the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council (NHSAC) and ABS‑based reporting show Australia’s overall renter share at around 30.6% in the 2021 census and ongoing affordability pressures through 2024 [3]. The Renting in Victoria: 2024 Snapshot documents deteriorating rental conditions but does not give a youth‑specific renter percentage for 2024 in the supplied excerpts [4].
4. A careful, evidence‑based answer to the direct question
Based on the available evidence in the supplied reporting, the most defensible, directly supported statement is that young Victorians (proxied by people in their early 30s) were about 23 percentage points more likely to be non‑owners (including renters) in 2016 than they were in 1981—rising from a 36% non‑ownership share implied in 1981 to about 59% in 2016 if one inverts the AIFS ownership figures [1]. The supplied sources do not contain an explicit, age‑specific Victorian renter percentage for 2024, so it is not possible from these sources alone to state the precise 2024 percentage and the exact point change since the 1980s; however, multiple Victorian and national reports confirm the same direction of change (rising renting and falling ownership for younger cohorts) through at least 2021–24 [2] [3] [4].
5. Caveats, alternative interpretations and hidden agendas in the reporting
Census‑based ownership drops can reflect delayed first‑home buying, increased living with parents, growth in private rental stock, or more long‑term renting choices among younger people—interpretations that different actors (government, developers, advocacy groups) may emphasise to support policy prescriptions ranging from supply‑side construction targets to rental‑protections legislation [1] [3] [5]. Several Victorian sources stress rental hardship and rising rents in 2024 but stop short of publishing the specific 2024 age‑band breakdown needed to produce a single definitive percentage change for Victoria’s young people compared with the 1980s [4] [6].