Purchasing a home in Australia has been a defining ambition of Australians. However, over time, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Australians to purchase homes of their choice. Numerous Australians working as nurses, teachers, cleaners are finding it challenging to purchase homes near the place they work. Consequently, they are being pushed to urban fringe, resulting in a commutation time of 60 to 90 minutes on a daily basis. While, there is no substantial improvement in wages, the prices of houses have almost doubled. This implies that the existing housing system in Australia has failed people who need it the most.

Data note: Data for house price is sourced from the ABS, wage, rent, rental stress and home ownership values are sourced from AIHW, Productivity Commission, Domain Group and ANZ/CoreLogic sources. Certain values have been rounded. Measures derived, like deposit-saving years, depend on a 20% target for deposits as well as 20% savings rate annually, with no investment returns. All source information and ABS series IDs are documented in the code comments.

  1. Every capital city has surged — but not equally

    Below Chart captures the Media House price across six Australian capital cities, 2014–2024.

Source: ABS Total Value of Dwellings.

The Chart informs that median house price in Sydney has surged from $650,000 in 2014 to $1.4 million in 2024 — more than doubling in a single decade. While, Adelaide and Brisbane, which were once seen as affordable alternatives for interstate movers, have now crossed $800,000. Likewise, Perth has surged sharply since 2021 and is no longer the affordable outlier it once appeared to be. The Reserve Bank’s 2022 rate hiking cycle briefly cooled some markets, but prices have since resumed their climb.

  1. Rents and prices have left wages far behind

    Index of wage growth, rent growth, and house price growth in Australia (2015 = 100). Use the buttons to isolate each series.

Source: ABS Wage Price Index (cat. 6345.0, Series ID: A2713848V, Table 1); ABS Consumer Price Index — Rents component (cat. 6401.0, Table 9); ABS Total Value of Dwellings (cat. 6416.0), rebased to 2015 = 100. Use buttons above to isolate each series.

Since 2015, Australian wages have grown by just 24% — while rents have climbed 52% and house prices have nearly doubled, rising 95%. For a nurse or teacher on a fixed salary, this divergence is not an abstraction. It is the reason they are being displaced further and further from the hospitals and schools where they work.

  1. Nearly 3 in 4 low-income renters are in housing stress

    Share of households in rental stress (>30% of income on rent) and total households affected, by income group (2024–25)

Source: Productivity Commission, Report on Government Services 2026, Part G Housing, Table GA.12; AIHW, Housing affordability 2024–25 (aihw.gov.au). Bubble size represents total number of households in that income group experiencing rental stress. Hover for exact figures.

Housing stress is the ratio of the rent payment to income of more than 30%. By that Despite the fact that 74.8 per cent of Australia’s lowest income renters are under stress even after, Living on Commonwealth Rent Assistance. Most importantly, the problem doesn’t just happen in the very poor: over half of low income earners ($30 – $50k) are also impacted. These are the same income bands that include aged care workers, early childhood educators, It involves the people who make up the fabric of everyday life in the city: androcles and retail workers.

  1. Young Australians are being shut out of homeownership

    Home ownership rates (%) by age group, Australia 1981–2021. Use dropdown to focus on one age group.

Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing 2021 (ABS, 2022).

Evidence indicates that in 1981, roughly 61% of the Australians in the age group of 25-34 owned houses. Unfortunately, by 2021, the figure has dropped to 41%, a whopping 21% in a period of 40 years. It is noted that older age groups are holding steady, indicating an increasing generational divide that is not driven by attitude, but by arithmetic.

  1. In Sydney it takes a teacher 14 years to save a deposit. A cleaner needs 28.

    Estimated years to save a 20% house deposit, by city and income level. Use dropdown to select income level.

Source: ANZ & CoreLogic, Housing affordability report.

Even on a median income of $80,000, a first home buyer in Sydney faces a 14-year savings journey — assuming they save diligently every year and prices do not rise further. For someone earning $40,000, the figure is 28 years. It has simply been repriced out of reach for the people who make Australian cities function.

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2026). Total value of dwellings, December quarter 2025 (cat. no. 6416.0). https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/total-value-dwellings/latest-release

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2024). Wage price index, Australia, December 2024 (cat. no. 6345.0). https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/wage-price-index-australia/dec-2024

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2024). Consumer price index, Australia, December 2024 (cat. no. 6401.0). https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/consumer-price-index-australia/latest-release

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2024). Average weekly earnings, Australia, November 2023 (cat. no. 6302.0). https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-work-hours/average-weekly-earnings-australia/latest-release

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2022). Census of population and housing 2021. https://www.abs.gov.au/census

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2024). Housing affordability. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/housing-affordability

ANZ & CoreLogic. (2024). Housing affordability report, April 2024. https://www.anz.com.au/content/dam/anzcomau/bluenotes/documents/ANZ%20CoreLogic%20Housing%20Affordability%20report%20April%202024%20-%20FINAL%20(digital).pdf

Domain Group. (2025). Domain house price report: December quarter 2024. https://www.domain.com.au/research/house-price-report/december-2024/

National Housing Supply and Affordability Council. (2025). State of the housing system 2025. https://nhsac.gov.au

Productivity Commission. (2026). Report on government services 2026: Housing and homelessness. https://www.pc.gov.au/ongoing/report-on-government-services/housing-homelessness

Acknowledgements

Only for formatting support or solving major code issues, generative AI tools such as ChatGPT (OpenAI) were employed. The author performed all data selections, analysis, design of visualisation, decisions for the story, interpretation, and final submitted content.