[News] Heyeeeee, remember how I talked about the cost of living in Perth the other day? Turns out...

[moonvoice]

An international housing survey has shown that Australian houses are the most expensive in the English-speaking world.

(And of course, Perth is one of the more expensive states, out of Australian states).

"The Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey puts Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide in the top 3 per cent of the world's most unaffordable housing markets.

The survey compared affordability by measuring median house prices against average household incomes.

It looked at 325 housing markets in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Hong Kong.

Australia has what the report describes as the most intense housing stress, with homes costing six times the average household income.

Report co-author Hugh Pavletich says it is an outrage that Australia's house prices are greater than the world's most populated cities.

"Melbourne and Sydney are far more expensive in relation to wages than what London and New York are, so it's completely absurd. In fact, it's a national disgrace," he said."

Comments

[lupagreenwolf]

Yeesh. That's just...ridiculous.

[silverjackal]

Yikes. Six times the average household income? Here it's around three to four for a fairly basic house.

[freyakitten]

It's 7.1 or something in Adelaide, a fact that I'm not altogether surprised at, given the extremity of the price increases in our housing market over the last four or five years (without a corresponding increase in the median income). Five years ago, my boss started looking at four bedroom houses; in the time between starting looking and actually finding one that the family would settle on (a year or so ago), those houses went up significantly - $200,000-$300,000 (on $500,000-$600,000 properties).

[silverjackal]

Ouch. And to think I was smarting when I bought my current place, because if I had known three months sooner I would have paid $8,000 less... (I moved for work and bought in the leading edge of a large price increase here. My home almost doubled in value in under three years, and then dropped back by a third. The current price is about four times an "average" household income, and I'm in a relatively pricy part of the country.)

[freyakitten]

My small, two-bedroom one bathroom house with decent-sized garden, halfway between Adelaide CBD and Glenelg, with lots of public transport, was (last time we checked; it will be worth rather more than that now) valued at 135% of what we paid for it six years ago. We did get a really good deal, thanks to the Adelaide Effect (one of our now-next-door-neighbours vaguely knew my partner's mother and so when the prior owner of the property died of old age, they talked and then we talked and then we bought the house off of the deceased person's estate and so they didn't have to pay any agent's fees) but still...! It's gone up by more than the median income for Adelaide (currently worth between four and five times the median income).

[spider_fox]

Just want you need, another reason to move to another country.

[ariestess]

That is just insane!

[freyakitten]

Yup. Ditto petrol.

Although I AM a little surprised that Perth ranks more affordable than Adelaide; I think it might be the first time ever...

[xmetanoiax]

Daaaayuuuum.

Housing is dumb. This is my simple but resolute belief. Here in Canada, aside from the downpayment, owning a house is actually often cheaper than renting an apartment half its size in my city.

[donnalotus]

Yup, that's what our mortgage broker was saying the other week. It's disgusting and very disheartening. Also why we're now moving out of the city and going bush... or beach... as the case may be. Argh! If I have to pay $350K to own a house, I might as well be by the beach!

[donnalotus]

PS. I love your icon... there are days when I think "everybody else is doing it... why not me?" Damn you, conscience, and inability to rip people off!

[goddess_incarnate]

Oh wow. That's really insane. I can't believe it. First, your country is ranked as having the worst living conditions for your natives and now it's the most expensive place to live in the entire english speaking world.

T.T

COME TO THE US! :D

[tsukikokoro]

I don't want to move to Melbourne. T________________________T *loses all her hair*

[gemfyre]

And yet they keep encouraging the population to grow and grow.

*sigh*

Ah man, I wish I could use my LJ icons here on Dreamwidth.