pomtastic

Average UK house $300K AUD, average AUS house $500K AUD. Spin it anyway you want, FACT IS, house prices in Australia are the highest in the world on any measure. I

In Perth, $500K will buy you a dump unless you are prepared to live in woop woop with no amenities and rough schools. Some people will no doubt be better off staying in UK, I'd personally rather live in Brighton UK, than Brighton Perth.

Amazulu

Cool, so would I (but not in that house). Go for it - you need to be where you are happy.

ABCDiamond

That's Perth for you

However, going with your FACTS.

If Australia was full of old Terraced houses, I am sure the prices would be lower.

It is one thing comparing pure prices, but like for like comparisons are much more interesting.

How does the average detached 4 bedroom Australian house compare to the average detached 4 bedroom UK house ?

All the time that the UK has more smaller terraced houses, then there is no doubt that UK prices will be lower.

But comparing more specific locations to wages, we get the following, which confirms that most of Australia, including PERTH, is indeed more expensive than West Midlands, East Midlands, NE England, NW England etc.

Seneca21

Reminds me of that Stewart Lee sketch when he's in a cab and the driver turns to him and says that he thinks "all gays should be killed". Lee asks why, and the driver pauses - never having been asked why, and finally says it's immoral. Lee then launches into a stream of thought about how you can't bring immorality into it because morality is transient and changes over time with other social values, and mentions that in ancient Greece homosexual love was considered the most noble form of love, etc.

To which the cab driver, irritated, responds dismissively:

Yeah, well, you can prove anything with facts, can't ya?

freebo

Actually, I can't really agree with you on that one, there are parts of Sydney full of old terraced houses and from what I've seen their prices are very high too.

The average house is the average house and the average income is the average income too.

City area house prices in Perth, Syd and maybe others are high for one reason, rampant speculation on future price growth, its a bubble and they all end the same way eventually.

Cape Blue

There's a Humbug down the back of the cooker

SpeedyJon

There was an interesting article in Moneyweek recently with a global map of where property is under or overpriced. They'd done this by applying the same measures throughout.

Australia was far and away the 'winner' with property coming out at 63% overpriced.

I appreciate you can question the measures used, but I think it was pretty reflective nonetheless. But you never know, this may be the first ever speculative bubble in the history of economics which doesn't burst.

ABCDiamond

A comparison of Sydney Terraced Houses to London Terraced houses would be a good comparison

Greater London: Average Terraced house price £429,941
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/h...l/region10.stm

Sydney House Types:
22% Flats
10% Semi/Terrace
64% Separate house (detached)

freebo

*sigh* and what is the price/sqm of each type of terrace?

ABCDiamond

That makes it even worse

This was an interesting UK price change

eugene43

Brought 2 bed flat £150.000 a week ago but in 2007 it was valued at just below £190,000.

Robbie37Michelle32

I don't think prices in Oz can stay high for much longer,the bubble will burst at some stage just like Spain when people investered left right and centre and they can not sell for love nor money now.

If Oz is not careful it will not be able to move forward in terms of development as a country because it will out price migrants coming over.
When will the Goverment come out and say we are this much in the red like the US and UK have.

I think if the UK banks started to lend money again then house prices and the market would be moving in the right direction.

We have just sold our house to move to OZ we have been very lucky here as not to make a loss on our house but to make money.

pomtastic

New York City and Hong Kong must be cheap then as they all live in tiny apartments!

BadgeIsBack

There are times when I am really quite glad I don't live in the UK. I'll slag off Australian housing stock but.....

ABC, are you saying that houses being bigger in Australia ought to be more expensive? I can understand that from a qualitative point of view but it does not really stack up (IMHO) when looking at a nation's economics, or is hard to draw a conclusion from. It's valid when the average migrant wants a bigger house and will pay for it.

Your oft-made point about more affordable homes if you look closer is a valid one - someone has to buy these houses.

Seneca21

Aus house prices are also more expensive to British people because of the collapse of sterling, which as nothing to to with Aus Govt. policy. Also, Aus has not "come out and said" as you write because it simply is not anywhere near as badly in debt. Nowhere close.

Britain is effectively bankrupt, and its economy pretty much trashed for ever. This is why we are seeing unprecedented military integration between European countries - they cannot even afford to have armies any more unless they get together.

Aus is not in the shit this deep.