Australian property valuations hit a double top

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The ABS yesterday released its property price data for the June quarter, which valued Australia’s dwelling stock owned by households at $6.82 trillion, whereas the total housing stock was valued at $7.14 trillion.

As shown below, the total value of Australia’s dwelling stock owned by households was 7.2 times employee incomes as at June 2020, up from June 2019’s trough of 7.0, but still below the 7.8 times incomes at the peak in June 2017. The total housing stock was valued at 7.6 times employee incomes in June, below the 8.1 times incomes in June 2017:

Similarly, the ratio of the dwelling stock owned by households against Australian GDP was 3.44 times as at June 2020, up from last year’s trough of 3.29 times, but still below the peak of 3.66 times GDP in the June quarter of 2017. The total housing stock was valued at 3.60 times GDP in the June quarter, down from a peak of 3.84 times GDP as at June 2017:

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.