[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

[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).