Mike's Minute: More of us are a part of the housing dream

The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Possibly my favourite stat from the Census was that home ownership is up.

Who would have thought?

Well, those of us that follow facts would. But the commentary around housing, sadly, is dictated to us by pressure groups whose best interest is served by telling us how broke we all are, and abetted by a media who sadly don’t ask a lot of questions any more and more often than not simply parrot whatever the press release of the day says.

So, the message is portrayed as one of being unable to participate. "We can't afford a house" or "housing is too expensive" or "owning a home is increasingly a cruel dream".

Well, it simply isn't true.

The other stat I often mention is first home buyers.

Throughout the past few years as housing costs have risen and access to money from banks has become problematic, how many times have we heard that so-called young people have been locked out of the market.

Once again I am happy to report that it's simply not true.

The percentage has remained amazingly static at about 26-27%. Over a quarter of all sales are to first timers and now the Census tells us the ownership rate in this country is rising.

It's important for a couple of reasons:

1) Because hopefully it will, in part, silence the naysayers and,

2) In silencing them remind us all of the role housing plays in this country’s psyche.

We love houses, rightly or wrongly. Most of us aspire to own them, they are a shelter, they are a place of pride and joy and they are a mechanism for savings.

What the new stats remind us of is the truth that for more and more of us the dream can be real. The narrative is often wrong and driven by the wrong attitude.

Owning a house early has always been a battle and so it should be. That way you value it. But getting there is real and the numbers prove it.

The numbers show more and more of us are part of the dream.

It is not, nor has it ever been, as bad as the wowsers would make it out to be.

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