Forget blue or white collar workers - our society is now broken down by the size of our investment housing portfolio.

New research by academics at the University of Sydney suggests the office room debate about property prices and Australians' intimate understanding of negative gearing points to how we have become an "asset society".

Jobs and income no longer define our society, a new study shows. They have been replaced by our ownership of property.

Focusing on Sydney, the nation's most expensive capital city, the research found long-time societal delineations based upon what we did for a job have now given way to whether we own property, have a mortgage or will forever be priced out of the housing market.

Two of the co-authors of the research, Lisa Adkins and Martijn Konings, said there had been a breakdown in the traditional way people measure their own worth and place in society as wages stagnated and house prices soared.