Australia has been declared the least affordable housing market in the English-speaking world.
According to the annual Demographia International Housing Affordability report, three capital cities including Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide ranked the top 10 most unaffordable global cities.
Sydney has been highlighted as the second most unaffordable city globally, marking the 15th time in 16 years that it has appeared in the top three.
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The report, which measures property prices against average incomes, deemed Sydney “impossibly unaffordable,” with home prices 13.8 times the average income.
Melbourne and Adelaide were also ranked in the top 10, with Melbourne at seventh and Adelaide at ninth.
Both cities received the “impossibly unaffordable” label.
“Affordability is disappearing in high-income nations as housing costs now far outpace income growth,” the study finds.
Brisbane was ranked joint 13th, sharing its position with Greater London and Miami.
Across Australia, property prices are an average of 9.7 times the typical income, a figure higher than in the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand.
“This level of unaffordability did not exist just over three decades ago.”
The report noted that Australian housing affordability has worsened significantly in recent years.
In 2019, the price-to-income ratio was 6.9; since 2020, property prices have surged by about 40 per cent, according to PropTrack figures.
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