Declining rates of home ownership aren't necessarily a bad thing, according to the Reserve Bank.

Addressing a conference of housing researchers in Melbourne, the Bank's head of economics, Luci Ellis, said participation in the housing market "need not be about owning your own home".

"Many people rent, someone else has to own those dwellings as well," she said. "In Australia, most private rental properties are owned by other households."

While the proportion of 25 to 34 year olds owning the home they lived in had fallen from around 60 per cent to around 50 per cent since the 1970s, this wasn't necessarily a cause for concern.