Home ownership levels among Australian millennials are lower than their peers in the US, Canada and Britain, a survey by HSBC has found.

Just 28 per cent of Australian millennials own a home, only marginally higher than their peers in the United Arab Emirates (26 per cent), and significantly lower than millennials in Mexico, who have one of the highest rates of home ownership (46 per cent), according to the report which surveyed 9000 people in nine countries.

It's not that millennials - defined here as people born between 1981 and 1998 - wouldn't like to buy a home, with 83 per cent of those surveyed telling HSBC they intend to buy in the next five years.

But by far the biggest challenge to buying a home is saving enough money for a deposit, cited by 75 per cent of millennials, according to the report.