Housing in four major Aussie cities rated | Australian Markets

Four major cities in Australia have been declared “impossibly unaffordable” by worldwide researchers who charge housing affordability throughout the globe.

Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth all made the highest 20 most unaffordable cities in 95 major markets in the 2025 Demographia International Housing Affordability report.

The research launched annually examines markets in Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK and US.

Chapman University’s Centre for Demographics and Policy has carried out the research for the previous twenty years noting, housing inflation had grown throughout the world.

The centre’s director Joel Kotkin mentioned high costs had been pushed by insurance policies that restricted growth on the periphery, which was the standard manner cities had grown.

“The Dermographia report has shown that where such policies predominate, for example in the UK, California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, New Zealand, Australia and much of Canada, the results are disastrous, at least for potential homebuyers,” he mentioned.

Sydney was the second most unaffordable metropolis in the research behind Hong Kong, Adelaide was sixth, Melbourne ninth, Brisbane eleventh, and Perth 18th.

Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane had been all rated impossibly unaffordable, whereas Perth was rated severely unaffordable.

Dermographia principal Wendall Cox mentioned in the report Sydney had the primary, second or third least reasonably priced housing of any major market in 16 of the final 17 years.

“Even the smallest Australian market, Adelaide, endures an impossibly unaffordable median multiple of 10.9, ranked 90th among the 95 markets,” he mentioned.

“It is remarkable that these markets are less affordable than widely recognised world cities like New York, London, or Chicago.”

The report discovered middle-income home possession was as soon as common, with home costs aligned to incomes, however costs had surged for the reason that Nineteen Nineties.

Mr Cox mentioned healthy markets had been damaged by escalating home costs far past family incomes.

He mentioned markets in cities, similar to San Francisco, Sydney and London had been ruled by city containment methods, and had been now 9 to fifteen occasions more than family incomes.

“Nearly all severely unaffordable housing markets follow the urban containment model,” he mentioned.

“The resulting land scarcity inflates prices, particularly near urban growth boundaries.”

Researchers recognized land worth in areas that had city containment insurance policies was typically the most costly issue when shopping for a home.

The research discovered land values spiked throughout the market when areas round city growth boundaries and greenbelts had been permitted.

The researchers warned densifying city areas with multi-rise housing over single household properties was unfavourable when it was too costly for center income households and unattractive for a lot of households.

They additionally raised questions on whether or not denser residing improved housing affordability with different research exhibiting combined outcomes for housing affordability.