Are you really a 'home owner' if you're living at your parents' place?

The traditional measure of home ownership in Australia is based on a single question in the national census. The question asks whether the dwelling you're living in is owned or rented. If you're a young adult living at home with your parents and their home is owned with a mortgage, you would tick the box "owned with a mortgage."

However, this doesn't reflect whether you are a homeowner yourself. According to economist Karl Fitzgerald, this method artificially inflates Australia's home ownership rate. Only around 52% of adult Australians actually own a home, not the commonly reported 66%. This discrepancy means that the politics of housing and the urgency to address housing issues are obscured by a statistic that doesn't accurately represent the reality.