It's getting harder and harder for first home buyers to get a foot in the door of the housing market, as the remaining "affordable" properties left grow in price faster than the rest.

Affordability constraints are driving buyers towards cheaper homes, resulting in dwindling options for younger Australians, a report released by online property marketplace Domain on Thursday found.

The effect was being borne out across most major cities.

Since 2022, the cheapest quartile of homes in Sydney has grown 4.1 percentage points faster than the top quartile.

The difference was 6.9 percentage points in Melbourne, 13.6 percentage points in Brisbane and 19.8 percentage points in Perth.

The phenomenon has exacerbated already falling home ownership rates among young Australians.

More than 68 per ce

See Full Page