Australian Property

The following chart from Alex Joiner from IFM Investors shows how average Australian mortgage sizes have chased home prices higher.

The typical Australian mortgage holder has experienced a massive rise in mortgage payments following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) monetary tightening cycle, beginning in May 2022.

Last week, the federal government’s own advisory body, the National Housing Supply & Affordability Council (NHSAC) released its 2025 State of the Housing System report, which forecast that only 938,000 dwellings will be built nationwide by mid-2029, 262,000 dwellings short of Labor’s National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million new homes over five years.

The NSW and Victorian governments are pushing hard to liberalise planning and encourage the rapid construction of high-rise towers within inner and middle-ring suburbs.

At the end of 2024, Australia’s mortgage affordability was the worst on record, with households required to sacrifice a record share of their incomes to repay the median-sized new mortgage.

Last year, prominent immigration propagandist and managing director of the Australian Housing and Research Institute, Michael Fotheringham, blamed the nation’s housing shortage on ‘greedy’ households consuming too many homes.

Recall leading apartment developer Tim Gurner’s warning that Australia’s rental crisis could last another 15 years due to a lack of supply relative to the nation’s strong population growth.

Home buyer demand increased recently following the federal election and expectations of an imminent interest rate cut from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). As illustrated below, final auction clearance rates (current to 18 May) showed a marked rebound across Sydney, Melbourne, and the combined capital city markets.

Melbourne has been the worst-performing housing market among major capital cities since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week, Cotality (formerly CoreLogic) released data showing that a record 64.4% of homes in Sydney were valued at $1 million or above.

RBA Governor Michele Bullock’s media appearance this week was viewed as a victory lap in the fight against inflation.

Nobody believed that the federal government’s target to build 1.2 million homes over five years was realistic.

Australian Industry Group’s analysis of data from the Productivity Commission underlines the downturn in the nation’s housing sector.

According to Cotality (formerly CoreLogic), Australian rental affordability has never been worse, with tenants required to sacrifice a record share of their income to rent the median home.

The construction sector has experienced the nation’s highest rate of insolvencies, with 2,795 firms failing this financial year, up 24% on 2024.

Exorbitant land costs are the fundamental driver behind Australia’s expensive housing.

Cotality (formerly CoreLogic) reported that the total value of Australia’s housing stock was $11.3 trillion as of April 30, 2025, with the average home worth exactly $1 million.

The latest ASIC data shows that the construction sector leads the nation’s insolvencies, with 2,795 firms going under so far this financial year, representing a 24% increase on 2024.

Last month, Ben Phillips from ANU’s Centre for Social Research published a spurious analysis claiming that “lower migration wont ‘free up housing’”, because “as population increases dwelling numbers also increase”, and “with fewer migrants we’d also have fewer dwellings”.

State and federal government plans to plaster our cities with high-rise apartments will not improve Australian housing affordability and will ultimately degrade liveability.

Australian dwelling prices have tracked sideways recently after experiencing a bounce following the 0.25% interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in February.