Being unable to afford a house ranks high alongside terrorism as two of the biggest concerns felt by ordinary Australians, a recent study has shown.

The study, conducted by social trend and insights researchers the KORN Group just before the federal election, used focus groups split across different demographics in Sydney, Melbourne and Geelong to explore what was most worrying the average Australian.

The results revealed that housing affordability was one of the biggest talking points with many young Australians having “no idea” how they would get into the property market.

Social researcher and marketing analyst Neer Korn said the focus groups highlighted the housing pressures felt in Sydney, noting Melbourne was not far behind.

“Many, many young people are giving up,” Korn told Domain, while older participants felt sorry for the younger generations. Owning one’s own home was still an aspiration for many, there was a sense that what had once been a rite of passage was now just “a fading dream”.

Younger people reported difficulty in saving for a deposit and were investigating different ways of buying properties, while many wanted to live closer to the city centre.

But even in regional areas, rising prices coupled with employment uncertainty and lower incomes meant that things “weren’t what they used to be”.

Foreigners, specifically Chinese buyers, were a particular talking point among the study’s participants who they felt they could “neatly appropriation blame to”, Korn said.

Australians felt strongly that foreigners should be restricted from buying Australian property, with the belief that that would allow younger buyers to enter the market.

Chief economist for AMP Capital Shane Oliver said it was understandable that housing affordability was a major concern for ordinary Australians.

“There’s a big problem there, and it’s been a problem for several years now,” Oliver said.

The house price to income ratio had surged from three times to around “eight, nine, 10 times in Sydney or Melbourne”, and the drop in home ownership rates reflected affordability challenges, he said.

But while foreign buyers and negative gearing were part of a bigger problem, the causes of high housing costs were “probably more complicated than many people seem to think”.

The real issues, according to Oliver, were a lack of supply, particularly of houses, the shift from high interest rates to low interest rates, and a population confined to several major cities.

Unless we could find a way to decentralise the population, “it’s hard to see” the affordability problem fixing itself, he said.

HSBC’s Australian and New Zealand chief economist Paul Bloxham said determining whether housing was unaffordable was complex as there were a number of ways to look at it.

“House prices are quite high relative to household incomes, but on the other hand, housing accessibility is relatively good due to the low [interest] rates,” he said. “Of course, you have to take on quite a bit of debt to get into the market”.

Bloxham predicted price growth would slow for a couple of reasons – the tightening of prudential settings and a “strong boost to housing supply”, particularly to apartments in major cities.

Other concerns raised in the study – which dealt with the respondents’ feelings and beliefs on issues, rather than empirically-proven causes – included greater inequality and the widening gap between the rich and poor, as well as frustration with the lack of vision displayed by Australia’s politicians and a lack of investment in infrastructure, particularly public transport.