Young Aussies are increasingly looking for cheaper alternative countries to live in as soaring house prices and cost of living pressures sees them leave in droves, government stats reveal.

According to the latest government figures, migrant departures – people leaving Australia to move overseas – increased by 8 per cent to 221,000 from 204,000 between 2023-2024.

The ABS measures the top five countries of birth for migrant departures from Australia each year. Since the Covid pandemic the only major demographic group to be consistently leaving the country is Australian-born citizens, with a further 57,100 leaving the country in 2023-2024, and about 35,590 coming home.

Save for the Covid pandemic, Australia has recorded a net loss of Australian-born citizens every year, the ABS data reveals.

The median age for Aussies leaving the country was 31.

According to mortgage service providers Lending Loop, the average age of first home buyers is now closer to 36, up from 25 in the 1970s. They say the main cause of this is soaring house prices, competition for homes and lenders requiring larger deposits.

Australians who had left the country to live overseas took to Reddit, where they blamed high property prices for their departure.

“I’m one of those Aussies who left. I moved to Japan. The job pays about the same as I’d make in Australia but the cost of living is way lower. Got a loan and bought a home only 20 minutes from two capital cities,” one Redditor said.

A second one wrote “I moved overseas and won’t return unless the housing prices go down or become accessible. I literally will never afford a house back in my home country until it does. I’ve purchased a 2 bedroom apartment overseas in a city with fine living conditions (although I miss the beaches) for a good price,”

“Wish I could return, but it’s not worth it to live in poverty or without prospects of a future. Congrats, Boomers.”

The call comes as cabinet documents released by the National Archives on January 1 showed the then Howard government knew of the risks of spiralling house prices but chose not to act on tax recommendations.

The documents show the government tasked the Productivity Commission in August 2003 to evaluate the affordability and availability of housing for first home buyers.

The report noted that house prices had rapidly escalated since the mid-1990s from 6 times the average person’s income to 9 times, with booming demand and supply failing to keep up.

The Commission also suggested the government review the tax system, particularly the Howard Government’s capital gains tax changes in 1999 and negative gearing.

“The Commission has concluded that these general taxation arrangements have lent impetus to the recent surge in investment in rental housing and consequent house price increases,” the report noted.

The number of Aussies leaving was offset by a strong number of arrivals, with the country taking in 446,000 net overseas migrants in 2023-2024.

The intake represents a 16 per cent decline on the 536,000 migrants who arrived across the 2022-23 year, although is still more than double the Albanese government’s target of 260,000 migrates in the next financial year.

“This fall (from 2022-23) represents the first annual drop in net overseas migration since Australia’s borders reopened in 2021-22,” ABS head of migration statistics Jenny Dobak said.

“This change in net overseas migration is led by a decrease in migrant arrivals, largely temporary visa holders, while departures increased during the same period.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the figures confirmed overseas migration as the number of people coming to Australia fell to its lowest leve since the pandemic.

“While departures are taking longer to normalise than forecast at the budget, we’re already starting to see overseas arrivals come down to more manageable levels, and they’ll fall further as more of our policies take effect,” he said.

“We’re taking action to bring migration back to sustainable levels and ensure the system works in the interests of all Australians. If Peter Dutton was interested in reducing migration, he would support our caps on international students instead of opposing them.”

Coalition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said almost 1 million people had arrived in Australia in two years.

“Labor has again overshot its migration target, this time by an additional 50,600 migrants,” he said.