ABSTRACT
Home ownership is both a dominant and secure-in the sense of politically unassailable-element in the Australian housing system. For these reasons it shares the distinctiveness of those other societies that are popularly referred to as ‘property-owning democracies’ (Daunton 1987). In Australia the term ‘family home’ has been used traditionally to evoke complex sentiments (Richards 1990, 115-43); however, in this essay it will serve as a term for all manner of households owning or buying their homes, rather than just the nuclear family. Significantly, although the level of home ownership has stabilised at about 70 per cent in Australia, Neutze and Kendig (1991) estimate that almost 90 per cent of Australian households have been owner-occupiers at some stage of their housing careers. Indeed, in cultural terms home ownership represents the very embodiment of the ‘Great Australian Dream’.
