If you’re reading this from somewhere in Sydney, you’re reading this from the second least affordable housing market in the English-speaking world. But hey, we’re also home to the most Instagrammable restaurant in the world, so there’s that.
Demographia’s annual International Housing Affordability Report ranks the harbour city in the top 3 least affordable cities in the world to buy a home, along with four other Australian capitals landing on the list.
Analysing the ability of middle-income buyers to own homes across 94 major housing markets in eight English-speaking nations, the report compares median house prices against average household incomes in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, China, Ireland, Singapore, the UK, and the US. In Sydney, the median house price is 15 times more than the average income, a feat only outperformed by Hong Kong, where the median house price of HK$8.58 million (around $1.64 million AUD) is 25 times more than the annual household income.
Behind Sydney, in third spot, is Vancouver, BC. Here, the median after-tax household income is $89,771 (around $98K AUD) and the average home price is $1,295,619 ($1,416,448 AUD). In Canada, the housing crisis is attributed to similar factors we’re currently facing in Australia, including lack of supply, inflation, and fast-rising interest rates after a period of rock-bottom rates.
Two US cities came in next, with California’s San Jose and Los Angeles deemed the fourth and fifth most unaffordable. In San Jose, AKA Silicon Valley, the average home goes for around $2m AUD, while the median income is $199K. In the city of angels, an average income of $113K AUD has to stretch pretty thin to afford a home with a median price tag of $1.93 million.
Hawaii might be America’s 50th state, but when it comes to housing, it’s the country’s 6th least affordable. Here, a mortgage requires 73% of the median paycheck, with house prices up 8.2% over the year.
Back in Australia, Melbourne and Adelaide help fill out the top 10, with Auckland, NZ, stopping by to say kia ora at #11 in the report. The average household income in Auckland is around $146K, while the median house price is upwards of $932K. Here, between 2019 to 2022, home values increased almost 40%.
Greater London entered the group chat at #14, where the average home goes for £510k ($969k AUD), down -2% over the last twelve months. In London, the average gross salary is around $84K.
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And what about the most affordable housing markets in relation to median incomes? No Australian cities featured within the top 45. Instead, the US dominated the list, with Pittsburgh coming in first. Here, the median house price is around 4.5 times the median household income, with incomes averaging $89.7k AUD and home values averaging $409K.
But what about Sydney’s most instagrammable restaurant? According to a recent study by Betway, it’s the Grounds of Alexandria, where menu prices vs median income also exchange blows.
