Anyone who says "cheer up, it's OK, all is great in Australia, you just need to smile, take a walk, smell the roses!", they always own a house.
And I’m also not a homeowner.
But the idea that someone, anyone, living in Australia has a worse outlook in life than 99% of humanity is absolutely not true.
But I have seen enough of that in person here as well, so I’m not questioning either the actual feeling or the validity of the feeling.
However, something appears to have changed where younger folks in a certain set of circumstances feel despair when someone of the same age under similar circumstances even a decade ago might not have felt that way.
I have to believe social media and the expectations it creates but also the way it bombards young people with issues that they can do nothing about today has some responsibility here.
Peole shouldn't be homeless, struggling to purchase food or other basics day to day, just so that the entitled rich of Australia can continue to increase their wealth.
I would go as far as to say, if a single person can't afford to purchase these things, there should be a drastic, exponential tax on all revenue until the situation is resolved.
For that matter, for much of European history, most people did not own their home (the local nobility did), and were subsistence farmers.
Many strong connections to other people (mutally) is much more likely to bring meaning to your life than property ownership.
Not having a major disruption to your whole life beyond your control is a meaningful thing, and a basic need. It could be reliable, predictable, stable source of income or saving, which allows you to rent without such concerns. It could be owning place to sleep, to eat, to invite friends.
Contrast this with the US, where zoning laws and NIMBYism prevent much new housing from being constructed, various laws prevent very small/efficient housing from being built (apartments in Tokyo can be quite tiny, but quite affordable), and lack of tenant protections all come together to make renting somewhat hazardous, because rents tend to go up quickly, much faster than market rate even (basically, to stay at the market rate, you need to rent a new place every year). So owning a home in America means avoiding the abuse from rental companies and ever-rising rents, and having a stable home and housing cost.