chris955

Of course something like parking is dependant on the individual house regardless of which country it is in. If you are inner city anywhere chances are parking will be a problem.

OzTennis

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...0-8752412.html

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/m...htsbridge.html

I've read the article.

I find the notion that property is less affordable by their criteria in Coffs Harbour, Sunshine Coast and Port Macquarie compared to London strange to say the least. If someone can explain that to me I'd be grateful. Perhaps there are a lot of retirees there with little income (but lots of wealth) who can afford the property but seem poor in relation to the high price of property there?

"Overall, Australia has moved down the tables, registering eight out of the 20 most expensive markets identified, but only four in the top 10, compared with five last year."

OzTennis

I did some of my own research because the study reported in the SMH is deeply suspicious and misleading on reflection.

It's trying to say that out of 337 markets in 7 countries:

Bournemouth is the 4th least affordable (la)
Port Macquarie is the 5th la
Sydney is the 6th la
Sunshine Coast is the 8th la
Coffs Harbour is the 9th la
London is the 13th la
Gold Coast is the 14th la
Wollongong is the 16th la
Melbourne is the 17th la
Mandurah is the 19th la

Well, the average property price in:

Port Macquarie is $384K
Sunshine Coast is $440K
Coffs Harbour is $365K
Gold Coast is $370K
Wollongong is $448K
Mandurah is $391K

Sydney and Melbourne figures previously reported.

These 6 are either below or just above the average UK property price of £243K/$412K.

And laughably, Bournemouth, the supposedly 4th least affordable market in the study has an average house price of £209,995 which is decidedly below the UK average.

As I hinted, if a lot of retirees live there then yes, dividing property prices by their pensions is going to make it look very expensive.

Now London has an average price of £544K/$925K and comes up ranked behind Bournemouth, Port Macquarie, Sydney, Sunshine Coast and Coffs Harbour.

Where this study is flawed is you don't have be a pensioner living on the Gold Coast or Coffs Harbour etc to buy there. You can sell your house in Sydney or Melbourne, downsize and live happily ever after. On the contrary, if you want to live in London you can sell up your mansion or castle elsewhere and maybe get a one bedroom flat with a parking space in London. The alternative is to already be an owner of London property, sell and move up (tongue in cheek)

I'm happier looking at the average property price for a country and dividing it by average incomes as a measure of affordability.

chris955

You have way too much time on your hands and clearly care more about this than the rest of us

OzTennis

Have you read my figures, have you read my figures, have you...

I'll look forward to your explanation as to how Bournemouth is less affordable than London.

Look folks, I'm not claiming property is cheap in Australia or anything. I just went in search of some facts on this 'property is more affordable in the UK' assertion and the facts told me either the jury is out on that or it's not true.

I just keep coming back to average property prices in the UK are a multiple of 9 in relation to average earnings; Australia 8 point whatever it is. It might just be a close thing.

Now, can we move onto cricket or something else? Ah, Australia is 2-1 up on the #1 ODI nation on their patch.

OzTennis

And incidentally, it takes a few minutes to garner some evidence, some of you should try it. I can also type faster than most of you can talk and that's saying something.

Beoz

Amen. Case closed.

Now of course, buying one of those very expensive UK properties could be a great investment as the rental return, especially in a place like London, is so much higher in proportion to anywhere in oz.

Perhaps time for a new thread.

isgraham

That's a meaningless statistic. You need to compare earnings to mortgage to gauge affordability. My house is about 8x my salary but my my mortgage is only 2.75 times my salary. Your stat would make it look crazy but the reality is different.

roaringmouse

Where's ABCDiamond ABCD...... - he would have the statistics ready to go on this.

Grayling

There you go again....muddying the water with 'multiples'....they are meaningless to a cash buyer.

Reality is property is cheaper in the UK than in Australia

Grayling

Indeed......carefully selected statistics

paulry

Absolutely correct, and it's one of the reasons why many migrant arrivals over the last few years have found it so hard to justify jumping from renting to owning.

roaringmouse

Article: Working families priced out in over half of the country (this if regarding England)

Grayling

Similar to here then

Beoz

I'm not sure how that makes a difference. I have enough in pounds sitting in the uk to buy the average house outright, but I would need to take out a mortgage in Oz as I haven't saved enough in the past 2.5 years in Oz dollars. To me, it probably makes the UK more affordable today but for the average person in both countries it would not.

Average salaries v average price is the only way to make a broad brush fair assessment.