Australia’s housing crisis will never end, unless…

Tuesday 27 January 2026

Australia’s housing market is an unmitigated disaster on almost every metric.

Cotality’s latest housing affordability report showed that dwelling values relative to household incomes were tracking at a record high of 8.2 in the September quarter of 2025:

The ratio of mortgage payments to household income was tracking at a near record high of 45.0% in the September quarter, despite three 25 bp cuts to the official cash rate by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA):

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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.