Australian Homes Least Affordable by World Standards

A new study measuring housing affordability in 227 cities around the world has found that Australia and New Zealand are the least affordable places to buy a home.

In total 18 Australian cities appeared in the Demographica study’s Top 50 of severely unaffordable markets. The township of Mandurah, about an hour south of Perth is Australia’s least affordable city with houses costing 9.5 times a household’s average income.

Mandurah was followed by Sydney (8.6), Perth (7.6) and Melbourne (7.3).

The Property Council of Australia’s national chief executive Peter Verwer and PCA Victorian executive director Jennifer Cunich has long crusaded for changes to the method land is released and taxed in Australia.

According to Demographia, and analysts, a city’s housing market is “seriously unaffordable” when more than five times the average annual salary is required to buy a home. The market is considerd affordable when it costs an average of three times an average home.

Putting things in perspective, according to Demographia, Melbourne for example would need to have an average home price of around $150,000 to be considered affordable.

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