{"id":107688,"date":"2025-11-28T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/au\/?p=107688"},"modified":"2025-11-27T22:38:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T11:38:34","slug":"buying-home-impossible-than-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/au\/buying-home-impossible-than-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Buying a Home in Australia Is More Impossible Than Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Housing affordability in Australia has hit rock bottom, leaving many feeling locked out of the property market. With soaring home prices and stagnant wages, the dream of owning a home is becoming increasingly elusive for most Australians. The gap between income growth and home values has never been wider, and the pressure is mounting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Unbearable Rise in Home Prices<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Between March 2020 and now, Australian home values have skyrocketed by a staggering 47.3%, increasing the median dwelling price to $872,500, according to data from Cotality\u2019s annual Housing Affordability Report relayed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-11-25\/housing-unaffordability-reaches-record-levels-in-australia\/106044078\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ABC<\/a>. In comparison, household incomes only rose by 15%, bringing the median income to $104,390. That disparity is glaring. If you\u2019re trying to buy a home in cities like Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane, good luck. For first-time buyers, the metrics look especially grim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though mortgage rates have eased slightly due to interest rate cuts, it still takes a whopping 45% of household income just to service a new mortgage. This is a major burden for those who aren\u2019t receiving parental assistance or reinvesting capital gains from previous property ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Since March 2020, home values have climbed by 47.3 per cent, with the median dwelling value in Australia now at $860,529, according to the Cotality Housing Affordability Report.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CduNy46obR\">https:\/\/t.co\/CduNy46obR<\/a><\/p>&mdash; SBS News (@SBSNews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SBSNews\/status\/1993127183657644399?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">November 25, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Disconnect: Why It\u2019s So Hard to Buy a Home<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>What\u2019s driving this crisis? Well, a variety of factors, including pandemic-era stimulus, historically low interest rates, and a rapid rebound in migration, have all boosted housing demand. But the supply side of the equation hasn\u2019t kept pace. Australia simply hasn\u2019t built enough homes to meet demand, which, combined with rising material costs and the construction industry\u2019s struggles, has created a perfect storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cotality\u2019s report highlights a mismatch between the number of new households being formed\u2014over a million in the past five years\u2014and the number of new homes being built\u2014only 880,000. This has further pushed up housing prices, making it even harder for average Australians to secure a home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sydney\u2019s Struggles and Regional Differences<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Take Sydney\u2019s eastern suburbs as an example. For an average wage earner, saving up a 20% deposit on a median-priced home would take 35 years. Yes, 35 years! And that\u2019s just to get to the point where you can start paying off your mortgage. Even once you\u2019ve saved, the cost of servicing that mortgage would require 1.5 times your annual income. It\u2019s no wonder that many feel like homeownership is a distant dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the flip side, cities like Canberra, Hobart, and even Melbourne are offering some relief. Canberra has seen a rise in apartment construction, helping ease rental affordability, while Melbourne\u2019s higher investment property taxes have kept prices relatively lower than Sydney. That said, Melbourne is still far from affordable by historical standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Growing Divide: Haves vs. Have-Nots<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The gap between <a href=\"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/au\/australias-property-market-loan-risks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">property owners<\/a> and non-owners is growing ever wider. Homeowners and investors, who have benefited from the price surge, can reinvest their gains into the market, further compounding the divide. The lucky few who can tap into family wealth or have significant capital gains are riding the wave, while the rest of the population watches from the sidelines, unable to keep up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The growing wealth divide has prompted experts like Eliza Owen from Cotality to warn about the structural shift occurring in the market. It\u2019s becoming harder for those without parental help to even get a foot in the door.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Housing affordability in Australia hits record lows, with soaring property prices and stagnant wages widening the gap for many Australians trying to buy a home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":107689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-housing","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107690,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107688\/revisions\/107690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}