the troubadour

Property prices would have fallen more if free market was allowed to dictate prices. With government intervention by way of grants and massive population growth together with lower interest rates and together with a lower dollar is ideal for a further increase in prices but far from ideal.

Greater foreign investment likely also preventing a lot of locals from entering the market. How much longer before generational mortgages?

Beoz

No idea about his or hers chinese persons visa, residential or citizenship status. And who cares. They have the appearance of chinese and they enter the auction late everytime. Its a chinese tactic and appears to be a very good one.

commonwealth

How do you know it's a chinese tactic? I know many non-chinese who do that as strategy.

Beoz

Having gone to a number of autions in the past 6 months certainly seems a chinese trick.

ABCD......

Your statement:
Answers:
Based on:

Detached House Prices
6416.0 Table 7: Median Price of Established House Transfers ; Brisbane ; $437,000

Wages
6302.0 Table 1: Average Weekly Earnings, Key Figures, November 2012
$1,453.60 Full-time adult average weekly total earnings
$75,587.20 Annual


It would be interesting to compare to other countries...

But it is difficult to do a real comparison when there are so many factors involved such as average floor space.
and

and

Bottom Line is:

• UK Detached Houses are £4,345 per sm or 8.5 weeks wages per square metre
• Brisbane Detached Houses as A$2,121 per sm or 1.5 weeks wages per square metre
• UK Semi Detached are £2,632 per sm or 5.1 weeks wages per square metre

The answer to the high prices is reduce the house sizes, IF people need to.

And IF that happens then the price "bubble" will bust, even without any actually property prices dropping

People will always pay what they want to pay for a property that they want.

And remember, people shunned the cheap houses in Western Sydney for years, because the area was too far away. 1 hour by train.

Grayling

Still lots of selective use of statistics I see

roaringmouse

I'm surprised you forgot to include running costs for the house (e.g. average electric, water, gas etc.), some kind of statistic to do with insulation, average commute to work from that average priced house with average costs involved... I think you're starting to slack a bit in your stats

big_matt

I think any statistic that has ever used is selective.

If I had to put a wager on Aussie house price direction, I'd guess that they'll go the way that UK prices are which is moving sideways for years. If the bubble in Oz is going to burst it will be by prices staying still and wages/savings rising rather than a physical 'crash' of the house prices.

I think we've reached an age in almost every developed country where too many people own houses they really can't afford and it would be suicide for any party not to do all they can to help them out.

I'd love to know how many people in Oz would default on their mortgages if rates went up by only 2% (ie still not even to half their historical highs). I know the UK number is millions.

OzTennis

The UK house market is not flat/declining as some claim. UK house prices have started to rise recently and there is every sign that the market is on the up for the first time since 2007/8 eg:

http://www.independent.co.uk/propert...n-8680758.html

Whichever way you interpret ABCD's stats, the impression given by some that Brisbane house prices are so inflated compared to average earnings doesn't seem to hold water - whether you factor in running costs, rates, commuting costs or Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all.

And if the houses were so out of reach I wonder why Australia has one of the highest rates of home ownership in the developed western world (higher than USA or UK)? Albeit latest stats show Australia's rate around 70% and UK's very slightly lower around 68%.

big_matt

Not really sure what to make of articles like that. It doesn't say whether it's actual sale values - loads of these surveys are done on valuations etc which mean absolutely nothing. A lot of the postcodes that are rising also seem to be in London - take away greater London and the UK-wide picture would be pretty different imo.

The UK market may be rising slightly but a 0.4% monthly rise here and there isn't too much off sideways imo, especially given how high inflation is.

I'd say part of the reason that Oz has such a high ownership % is that until relatively recently property was very cheap there.

We moved to Melbourne in 2004 and bought a 2 bed flat in St Kilda for 200k. My other half, who earned about $70k, was told she would have been granted the mortgage on her salary alone without a deposit. It doubled in value by the time we sold it in 2010 to return to the UK.

In 2004/2005 in the UK the value of homes had already boomed significantly and were becoming unaffordable.

I think another factor is that mortgages are still more easily given in Oz than the UK (which has become too strict). My gf's little sister has just started a graduate job on $65k and her bank thinks she'd get a $320k mortgage with a 10% deposit and at a decent rate.

No way are you getting a mortgage on 5 times your salary as a single person in the UK these days.

Would be interested to see how the home ownership % of all countries goes in the years ahead.

ABCD......

Selective, yes. I selected the BBC figures for UK and the ABS figures for Australia

I also selected to compare Detached Houses with Detached houses, unlike most comparisons that compare Australian detached houses with UK ALL homes.

Which ones would you select ?

Everyone selects everything, when you think of it

I bet you even select which shirt you wear each day

ABCD......

Agreed Even those selected by people who complain that others are selective.

Probably not too many, but the main ones would be the recent ones who have borrowed too high based on future earnings, and would be caught out if things changed too fast for them.

Average mortgages are not too high, for people who bought some years ago.

Average mortgage sizes in April 2013 were:

• $326,400 for new homes
• $301,600 for existing homes

Ten years ago, in April 2003, it was:

• $205,800 for new homes
• $177,800 for existing homes

and I am doing it again, being selective
Maybe I should have picked 5 years ago, or March 2013, to please some old bugger somewhere...

Grayling

For starters you used the cost of NEW homes in London which is made clear in the article.
You can not compare Brisbame to London

Most people are well aware that detached houses in most areas outside of London will not cost over 330000 pounds and most houses anywhere near the centre of Brisbane would cost more than $4370000. ......but you choose to 'compare' greater Brisbane to London.
Do you really think you are doing anyone a service by giving misleading information?

old.sparkles

Depends where you mean by most areas out side of London. In Slough you would be paying way may than 330k for a detached house. I know of a lot of areas where you would pay that much for a terraced house.

Slough I know is 40km out of London, but there are other areas I could chose that are further from London with high house prices. But I know Slough and know that my 3 bed terraced on a not so good estate sold for just short of £200k

renth

Slough! that's unpossible. You mean they paid someone £200k to live in the house, right?