New research reveals many Aussies fear they will never be able to afford to buy a home

NEW research warns more than 3 million Aussies could end up renting forever. That’s a big call, is it true?

Finder research says millions of Australians will rent their whole life.

IT’S a big call - more than three million Australians could be stuck renting forever, but the analysts behind comparison website, finder.com.au, reckon that’s the reality of today’s property market.

It’s labelled the group, “generation rent’’ and says 47 per cent of renters believe they will rent for a lifetime if house prices keep rising.

The group didn’t manage to survey all Australians, but did ask 2006 of them, if they thought they would ever buy, and extrapolated the results out to cover the entire country.

About 57 per cent of survey respondents had got a foothold in the property market and lived in their own home, but the remainder were renting.

Finder money expert Bessie Hassan said housing affordability levels were forcing some to rent their entire life.

“The margin between homeownership and renting is narrowing, and there may come a time when there are more renters than owner occupiers in this country,’’ she said.

Ms Hassan said many thought it would be a lot more affordable when all the costs of owning a property were factored in.

The survey found 78 per cent of Baby Boomers who were currently renting believed they would rent until the end of their life.

Generation X respondents were looking at other ways to own property with 8 per cent most likely to be rentvestors.

While many found it difficult to move out of renting and into buying Ms Hassan said it wasn’t impossible.

Renting has become more appealing to some as rental growth hits historical lows nationally at the same time that property prices continue to rise.

The most recent CoreLogic Rental Review revealed renting had become much cheaper with rental rates across combined capital cities dropping in August by 0.3 per cent.

Research analyst Cameron Kusher, predicts that the weaker rental market conditions will continue over the coming months as overall housing supply grows.

Figures released by SQM Research reveal national residential vacancies dropped in August.

It found there were 73,451 vacancies, with vacancies dropping in all capital cities.

The report said Hobart had the tightest vacancy rate of 0.5 per cent in August