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While most Australians dream of owning their own home, one in four don’t believe this will become a reality, a new survey suggests.
The latest data from the MLC Wealth Sentiment Survey, which is based on 2,000 survey participants’ responses, is stacked against the home ownership dream.
It revealed that almost one in five Australians said they have been unable to save any of their income in recent years. Just over a quarter of respondents said they’d only been able to save one to five per cent.
Lower income earners struggled the most, with over 40% of Australians earning less than $35,000 per year unable to save any of their income compared to 14% of those who earn over $100,000.
Not only that, but the majority of Australians expect their incomes to either increase a little or stay the same. A third of respondents said they expect no change in income over the next few years, with 15% expecting their income to fall.
For those who do manage to become property owners, many make sacrifices when and where they buy, the survey found.
Almost a third said they would or did wait longer until they'd saved a bigger deposit before buying, and a quarter said they would be prepared to live in a suburb some way out of the city in order to afford their first home.
Around 16% said they would live in an apartment, and 12% said they’d live further away from work and family or move to a regional area in order to realise their dream.
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