The number of households still paying off a mortgage has increased with just 31% of Australians owning their home outright according to the latest Census data.

The figures show in 1996, 41.6% of Australians owned their home outright. The data also shows 31% of Australians are renting.

While many households still had mortgages, more than three quarters of owners were not overextended as their monthly repayments are less than a third of their income.

University of Sydney professor of urban and regional planning, Nicole Gurran, says that is probably a result of the low interest rate environment during the pandemic, when fixed and variable rates were available for below 2%.

While Australia is in the grip of a rental crisis and rents are rising the Census figures show only 32.2% of households are spending more than a third of their income on rent compared with 36% in 2016.

Gurran says this may be because of more higher income earners entering the private rental market.