Housing
At the time of writing, the median house prices in Australian capitals1 are as follows
Sydney: $555,000
Canberra: $495,000
Melbourne: $490,000
Darwin: $472,000
Perth: $460,000
Brisbane: $415,000
Adelaide: $370,000
Hobart: $350,000
The average house price in Australia is $470,000 ( averaged over the 8 capital cities)
What`s an average house
Generally speaking, an average Australian house would be a 3 or 4 bedroom, single-storey house on its own plot of land. Of course, there are many much bigger houses and many smaller dwellings, such as home units and apartments. As for any other country in the world, location is a key factor in property prices. As an illustration; $460,000, the median price in Perth, could buy you any of the following dwellings, depending on which suburb it’s in:
A single-storey 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house in Padbury (suburb median $470,000).
A double-storey house with a pool on a large block in Gosnells (suburb median $315,000).
A 2 bedroom apartment close to the river in Applecross (suburb median $1.25 million)
Australia Compare to UK
The average UK house price is around £160,4005, equivalent to about $250,000 AUD at the current exchange rate. At $470,000, the average Australian house is 88% more expensive than the UK average!
In New Zealand the average is $365,000 NZD6, equivalent to about $285,000 AUD, so Australia is 65% more expensive than New Zealand.
Of course, we are only looking at the numbers here – it does not take into account the size or quality of the “average” house in each country.
Also, this is not a direct comparison of “Housing Affordability” between countries – that needs to take into account earnings, income tax and mortgage rates
Mortgage Payments
According to the ABS2, the average home loan in Australia in April 2012 was $288,900.
The current Cash Rate Target (Base Rate) set by the Reserve Bank of Australia3 is 3.50%, resulting in a typical mortgage rate of around 5.9%.
So, an average home loan will cost you around $1830 per month – that’s $21,960 per year or around $422 each week.4
Renting
According to REIWA7, the median rent in Perth in March 2012 for all types of property was $425 per week. For 4 bedroom houses, the average is more like $470 per week.
A good way to assess rents is to look at the yield ie. the annual rent as a percentage of the house value. The average yield in Perth is around 4-5%. So, as a rough guide, if you’re looking to rent in a certain suburb, where the median house price is say, $700,000, you can expect to pay $700,000 * 4.5% = $31,500 per year in rent. This comes to $605 per week.
A 100% mortgage on the same house would cost over $1000 per week. Add in rates, water rates and a few repairs and you would be paying around $1200 per week as a home-owner.
Clearly, renting is usually a lot cheaper than owning; in our example $605 versus $1200 per week.