Once a nation of homeowners, we are becoming a nation of renters.

It's been two years since the latest update on housing occupancy and the one released on Friday show the proportion of households renting has edged up to 31.4 per cent. The proportion owning outright is only a point or two in front, at 32.5 per cent. Around 35 per cent of homes are mortgaged.

Back before the tax change that ignited negative gearing at the end of the 1990s around 40 per cent of households owned outright, and only 28 per cent rented.

It's the flipside of the boom in second properties that has made Australia a nation of landlords. The Bureau of Statistics says an extraordinary 1.5 million households now own properties they don't live in. Among high earners 39 per cent own a second, third or fourth property.