46 years to save a Sydney house deposit

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Sydney’s housing market has well and truly descended into the Hunger Games.

According to Domain, Sydney’s median house price ballooned to an absurd $1,627,625 in the March quarter of 2024:

Sydney median house price

New analysis from Finder shows that it will take a typical single school leaver 46 years to save a 20% deposit on a median Sydney house:

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Graham Cooke, Finder’s head of consumer research, said the data demonstrated that purchasing a property was becoming a “pipe dream” for many young Australians without family assistance.

“For most people, wage growth simply isn’t keeping pace with skyrocketing property prices; while the bank of Mum and Dad makes it easier for some to enter the property market, not all will have that privilege”, Cooke said.

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“Parental support can significantly lower the initial hurdle of saving up for a house deposit, allowing quicker entry into the market, smaller loans, and a better chance of loan approval”.

The situation is even worse when you consider that prospective home buyers must fork-out an increasing share of their incomes for rent why they try to save a deposit:

Sydney asking rents

Sydney faces a future where young families have no hope of owning a house with a backyard.

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Sydney’s population is officially projected to grow to 8.4 million people by 2071, driven entirely by net overseas migration:

Sydney population projection

This population expansion is projected by the Urban Taskforce to shrink the share of detached houses in Sydney from 55% at the 2016 Census to 25% by 2057:

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Sydney dwelling composition

For Sydneysiders, the Australian Dream is dead, buried, and cremated.

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.