Property prices in many state capitals now rank among some of the world's priciest, with Australia's five biggest cities named as ‘severely unaffordable’, according to Demographia, an international housing affordability think tank. In its 2017 annual report, the group ranked Sydney the world’s second least affordable city, with house prices almost 13 times higher than the median household income.
Sydney came in only behind Hong Kong, where property prices are about 20 times higher than median household income. Melbourne ranked fifth (9.9 times household income), Adelaide ranked 16th (6.6), Brisbane ranked 18th (6.3) and Perth also made the top 25, coming in at number 21 (5.9). Also in the list of top 10 least affordable housing markets were Vancouver, San Jose, Los Angeles, Honolulu, San Francisco, Auckland and London.
Australian housing experts have varying opinions on the extent of the situation. CoreLogic's research director Tim Lawless disagreed with Demographia's findings on just how expensive Australian property prices had become.
He believes Sydney dwelling prices are nine times more than median household income, Melbourne's are 7.5 times higher and other Australian capitals are slightly lower than Demographia's data reported.
