Home ownership has sunk to lows not seen since the 1950s, while a record number of properties stand unoccupied.

The census reveals that just 65.5 per cent of Australian households owned or were buying the home in which they lived in 2016, down from a peak of 71 per cent in 1966.

The proportion of Australians who were tenants crept up from 29.6 per cent in 2011 to 30.9 per cent in 2016, the first time the proportion had climbed above 30 per cent since 1954.

The increase appears to be the result of much higher buying prices and a tax-driven surge in property investment, in which small investors buy and rent out what are, in the main, existing houses and apartments.