New research suggests the great Australian dream of owning a large, detached house no longer exists.

“We can now replace myths and assumptions with real evidence about the kinds of housing Australians want”, said Jane-Frances Kelly, Cities Program Director at the Grattan Institute, on the release of the report, The Housing We’d Choose.

It found that once people took into account real-world factors such as current housing costs and their income, they chose a far wider range of housing types than the stereotype of all Australians wanting a detached home on a large block would suggest.

However, “we’re just not building the variety of housing that Australians say they want”, Jane-Frances said.

In particular, she pointed to shortages (compared to what we say we want) of semidetached homes and apartments in the middle and outer areas of both Melbourne and Sydney.

The report argues that there are barriers to delivering more of the housing people say they want. These include the cost of materials and labour for buildings over four storeys, land assembly and preparation, and the risk and uncertainty of Australia’s planning systems.

According to Grattan, building enough of the right housing is not only vital to meet the range of choices individuals would like to make, but also for the way in which cities will grow.