You might need to put your big Australian dream on hold because Demographia’s International Housing Affordability 2022 Edition has deemed Australia as one of the most expensive countries to buy a home in. Sydney and Melbourne are the second and fifth least affordable cities in the world, according to the data collected.
Sydney’s median house price is 15 times more than the average household income, putting it only behind Hong Kong where house prices are 23 times the household income. Melbourne came in fifth with median housing prices 12 times the average household income.
Other Australian cities have also made the cut for being ‘severely unaffordable’ highlighting the increasingly plunging home affordability rates across the country. Adelaide ranks number 14 followed by Brisbane at number 17 and Perth at number 20, making the capital of Western Australia just slightly less expensive than New York which sits on number 20.
According to the report, there has been an “unprecedented deterioration in housing affordability during the pandemic.”
Elaborating on Sydney’s ranking, the report stated that, “no market except for Hong Kong has reached this level of unaffordability in the 18 years of Demographia reports.”
It adds about Melbourne: “With a median multiple of 12.1, Melbourne is the 88th least affordable of the 92 markets. This elevated median multiple has only been reached before in Australia by Sydney.”
The 20 least affordable cities to buy a house:
(Median multiple of house prices relative to income)
- Hong Kong, China (23.2)
- Sydney, NSW, Australia (15.3)
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (13.3)
- San Jose, California, US (12.6)
- Melbourne, Australia (12.1)
- Honolulu, Hawaii, US (12)
- San Francisco, California, US (11.8)
- Auckland, New Zealand (11.2)
- Los Angeles, California, US (10.7)
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada (10.5)
- San Diego, California, US (10.1)
- Miami, Florida, US (8.1)
- London, UK (8)
- Adelaide, SA, Australia (8)
- Seattle, Washington, US (7.5)
- Riverside-San Bernadino, California, US (7.4)
- Brisbane, QLD, Australia (7.4)
- Denver, Colorado, US (7.2)
- New York, New York, US (7.1)
- Perth, WA, Australia (7.1)
Pretty bleak stuff.
Check out the entire report here.