Australia's median home value has increased by about $230,000 in past five years, data shows
House prices jumped 39.1% in the five years to March 2025, according to CoreLogic's April Housing Chart Pack. Meanwhile, the price of an average home has grown from 4.6 times the median income in 2001, to 6.5 in 2020, before hitting a record high of 8.0 at the end of last year.
Although the increase seen over the past five years is relatively mild in percentage terms compared to the historic peaks recorded in the early 2000s and late 1980s, the recent rise is far higher in dollar terms, according to Kaytlin Ezzy, a CoreLogic economist.
'While around half the increases seen during the previous peaks, when adjusted to the current median value, the rise seen over the past five years is equivalent to a roughly $230,000 increase,' she said.
'By comparison, the dollar rise seen over the five years to December 2003 was roughly $90,000 less, at $140,000, while the March 1989 increase was equivalent to around a $60,000 increase in the median.'
Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter
CoreLogic's research director, Tim Lawless, said housing affordability had continued to hit new peaks.
'Other measures of housing affordability are also at a record high, including serviceability metrics, the number of years it takes to save a 20% deposit, and how much income is required to pay rent,' he said.
'In simple terms, housing values have risen a lot faster than incomes.
'The factors behind the rapid growth in values come back to underlying demand/supply imbalances as well as a long-term trend towards lower interest rates and household debt accrual.'
Sydney is the most unaffordable capital city housing market, with a ratio of housing values to incomes hitting 9.8, followed by Adelaide, with a ratio of 9.
Sign up to Afternoon Update: Election 2025
Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key election campaign stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters
after newsletter promotion
Regional New South Wales is the third most unaffordable market with a ratio of 8.9, followed by Brisbane at 8.2.
At the other end of the scale is Darwin, with a dwelling value to income ratio of just 3.9 – a reflection of relatively low values and high incomes.
Ezzy said the 39.1% growth in values seen over the past five years reflected strong underlying housing demand, tight supply and a relatively resilient economy.
'Outside of a few short months of declines, values have seen strong upward pressure over the past five years, driven by low stock levels and increased demand,' Ezzy said. 'But this growth cycle remains moderate compared to earlier periods, when financial deregulation, strong economic growth and favourable demographic shifts helped fuel remarkable value growth.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Euro set for first monthly decline this year, focus switches to Fed
SINGAPORE, July 30 (Reuters) - The euro steadied near its lowest in a month on Wednesday, nursing steep losses this week as investors counted the cost of the U.S.-EU trade pact, while the dollar wobbled ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting. The Japanese yen firmed against the dollar after a powerful earthquake struck off Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula and generated a tsunami, prompting evacuation warnings in the area and across most of Japan's east coast. Currency markets were mostly steady as investors were hesitant to place bets before crucial economic reports and central bank meetings in Canada, Japan and the United States. U.S. and Chinese officials agreed to seek an extension of their 90-day tariff truce, following two days of what both sides described as constructive talks in Stockholm. No major breakthroughs were announced and U.S. officials said it was up to President Donald Trump to decide whether to extend a truce that expires on August 12. The Sino-U.S. talks come after a framework deal between the U.S. and EU was announced on Sunday. The accord has evoked a mix of relief and concern from Europe, as the agreement was lopsided and skewed towards the United States. Investors have been keeping an eye on the trade pacts as countries scramble to get deals over the line before the August 1 deadline set by U.S. President Donald Trump. "Markets seem to be increasingly interpreting trade agreements as symbolic and tactical rather than structural resolution," said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo in Singapore. "With terms often vague and enforcement mechanisms weak, investors are assigning lower market beta to these negotiations unless backed by concrete detail." The euro was 0.19% higher at $1.1566 after dropping for the first two days of the week and hitting a one-month low of $1.15185 on Tuesday. The euro is up 11.7% since the start of the year but on course for its first monthly drop this year. The single currency has benefited this year from the dollar losing its lustre due to Trump's erratic trade policies, prompting investors to look for alternatives. Sterling was at $1.3358 and the Australian dollar last bought $0.6517. The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.178 per U.S. dollar. That left the dollar index , which measures the U.S. currency against six others, at 98.815, hovering near a one-month high. The index is set to record its first month of gains this year. Investor focus will now switch to central bank meetings, with the Fed widely expected to stand pat on rates later on Wednesday, making comments from Chair Jerome Powell crucial to gauge the policy path. The meeting comes in the wake of Trump's constant demands for rate cuts, which have coincided with an unrelenting campaign of attacks on Powell by the president and administration officials. There is speculation that Governor Christopher Waller and Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman could issue dissents if the Fed on Wednesday holds the policy rate steady for the fifth time since December. Both were appointed by Trump as was Powell. "While dissenting isn't uncommon, the dissents at this week's meeting may get more focus because Trump has made it crystal clear that he thinks the FOMC should be lowering interest rates," said Kristina Clifton, a senior economist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. "Dissents at this meeting may be judged as political and put a dent in perceptions of the FOMC's independence." The BOJ is also expected to stand pat and the spotlight will be on comments from Governor Kazuo Ueda as investors hope the recent trade deal between Japan and the U.S. paves the way for the central bank to raise interest rates again this year. The yen firmed 0.3% to 147.94 per dollar and was last at 148.06 after news broke about the Pacific earthquake and tsunami, with investors on alert for any damage to key infrastructure in Japan. Christopher Wong, currency strategist at OCBC, said the yen strength was in reaction to earthquake-related headlines and likely exacerbated by thin market liquidity. "The Nightmare of 2011 Tohoku earthquake lingers," he said, referring to the devastating earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan in March 2011. In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin was 0.4% higher at $117,944.64, while ether rose 1% to $3,807.34.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Asian stocks steady as investors brace for tariff deadline and Fed
SINGAPORE, July 30 (Reuters) - Asian stocks rose modestly on Wednesday, with investors cautious after trade talks between the U.S. and China ended without any substantive agreement and ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy announcement. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS), opens new tab was up 0.3%, led by gains for Taiwanese stocks (.TWII), opens new tab, after U.S. stocks ended the previous session with mild losses as traders braced for a slew of corporate earnings. Australian shares (.AXJO), opens new tab were up 0.7%, while Japan's Nikkei stock index (.N225), opens new tab slid 0.03%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index (.HSI), opens new tab skidded 0.4%. The euro edged up from a one-month low, rising 0.2% to $1.1564, as markets weighed the EU's trade deal with the Trump administration. Traders are preparing for several central bank decisions, key economic reports and corporate earnings during the next few days, culminating in U.S. President Donald Trump's August 1 tariff deadline. The Federal Reserve is expected to leave interest rates unchanged at its policy meeting later on Wednesday, though it could see a rare dissent by some central bank officials in favour of lower borrowing costs. "With labour market conditions near full employment, most Fed officials want to wait and see how tariffs impact inflation," said Tom Kenny, senior international economist at ANZ in Sydney. Some officials are concerned that tariffs could drive higher inflation expectations, leading to more persistent price pressures rather than a one-off hit, he said on a podcast. "Our expectation is that the Fed should be in a position to cut rates at the September meeting." U.S. Treasury bonds advanced ahead of the Fed's meeting, pushing yields to the lowest in almost four weeks following a strong auction of seven-year notes that quelled concerns about diminishing demand for government debt. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes was last 4.328%, the lowest level since July 3. The two-year yield , which rises with traders' expectations of higher Fed fund rates, was little changed at 3.873%. The Bank of Japan is expected to hold steady on Thursday and the focus will be on its comments to gauge when the next rate increase will come after a trade deal between Japan and the U.S. cleared the way for the BOJ to resume its rate-hike path. Ahead of Trump's deadline to reach a deal to avert imposition of the "Liberation Day" tariffs, some countries' talks with the U.S. looked set to go down to the wire. U.S. and Chinese officials agreed to seek an extension of their 90-day tariff truce on Tuesday, though no major breakthroughs were announced. U.S. officials said it was up to President Trump to decide whether to extend a trade truce that expires on August 12 or potentially let tariffs shoot back up to triple-digit figures. India is also bracing for higher U.S. tariffs — likely between 20% and 25% — on some exports as it holds off on fresh trade concessions ahead of the August 1 deadline, two Indian government sources said. Meanwhile, three South Korean cabinet-level officials met with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in a last-ditch push for a deal. Oil prices rose as potential supply shortages came into focus after Trump gave Moscow an abbreviated deadline toward ending the war in Ukraine. Brent crude futures rose 14 cents, or 0.19%, to $72.65 a barrel. U.S. tech megacaps Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab and Meta (META.O), opens new tab are due to report earnings on Wednesday that will set the tone for the rest of the week and the earnings season. "It's been a solid U.S. reporting season so far, but these megacap names need to run it hot and blow the lights out, given the bar to please has been sufficiently raised," said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone. The Singapore dollar strengthened 0.2% after Singapore's central bank kept its monetary policy settings unchanged on Wednesday following stronger-than-expected economic growth in the second quarter.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Cricket Australia's mooted BBL sell-off pits big risk against megabucks reward
The timing could not have been better for Todd Greenberg, the new chief executive of Cricket Australia. The month before he settled into his Jolimont office in March this year, his associates at the England and Wales Cricket Board did him an extraordinary favour. Their process to sell minority stakes in teams playing in The Hundred, the short-form franchise cricket competition similar to the Big Bash League, raised £520m ($1.06bn). Greenberg – the respected former NRL and Australian Cricketers' Association CEO – followed Nick Hockley in the role. But while the position as one of the figureheads of Australian sport came with prestige and power, Greenberg was also restricted by the actions of his predecessor. The extension of the local broadcast deal with Foxtel and Channel Seven was signed by Hockley in 2023 amid strained relations between the sport and its free-to-air partner. Whether the roughly $215m per year arrangement was fair value or not, Greenberg came into the role handcuffed: cricket's single biggest revenue line item was locked in until 2031. Seeking options – more so-called 'financial levers' – at the start of his tenure as CEO, Greenberg acted quickly following the The Hundred sale process. Alongside chair Mike Baird, Greenberg commissioned CA's long-time consultants of choice, Boston Consulting Group, to assess the best paths of growth for the BBL. The recommendations of that report were revealed on Tuesday in the Sydney Morning Herald, and include selling a minority stake in the eight BBL teams to private investors. Whether it came from a genuine leak, or a plant by CA to test public support for the controversial proposal, the news has been hailed by proponents of private investment. Player agent and cricket dealmaker, Neil Maxwell, believes the opportunity not only provides access to capital but also new investors' business acumen and networks. 'It shouldn't have taken this long,' he says. 'The BBL has built a decent product, initially it was a second mover [after the IPL], and it had that advantage over other leagues, but it set itself back by not keeping pace with commercial reality. The major factor there is it hasn't been able to compete internationally through one of the main products that people require, and that's access to the best players.' Private equity in the BBL has been considered since 2010, before a ball in the new competition had been bowled. At that time, the CA's head of strategy was Andrew Jones, who now works as a management consultant. A decade later, Jones wrote an article in The Age describing the period titled: 'There is always free cheese in a mousetrap'. The 'free cheese' in a private equity deal is the up-front investment. The 'mousetrap' is the money, control and strategic flexibility lost forever. Selling BBL stakes to private investors was 'the single worst idea in my time in cricket,' Jones wrote in 2021. 'Not much has changed.' Since 2021 however, IPL team valuations continue to rise, and a sale of the Gujarat Titans this year pegs the team at around $1.3bn. There has been increasing investment in franchise T20 leagues such as those in South Africa and the UAE, which compete against the BBL in its traditional summer school holiday window. Eric Windholz, associate professor in Faculty of Law at Monash University and an expert in sports law says CA 'would be derelict in their duties' if they were not monitoring these global trends. 'It's only natural that the authorities in charge of cricket in Australia are looking at what's happening around the world and properly investigating what are the opportunities for cricket here,' he says. But he noted public sentiment remained sceptical about private equity's benefits. 'We, the public, feel like we own the sport, so whenever we hear about private equity coming in to own an asset that we think we own, we obviously have an unease about it,' he says. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion Some of that discomfort may be alleviated by the release of more information about the proposed BBL deals. Selling 49% of a franchise will be too large a share for some states to stomach, even if they retain majority control of an entity valued as high as six figures. The franchises will also require veto rights over the investors. The Adani Group, which had interest in the recent Gujarat Titans sale process, buying a stake in Brisbane Heat is unlikely to go down well. But there are also competing views over how any capital injection would be spent. Under The Hundred's sale, 10% of the revenue was quarantined for grassroots cricket, with the rest split between the counties and the MCC. Much of that money appears set to be used to prevent the collapse of some counties, and reduce hundreds of millions of pounds in debt. Cricket Australia lost $32m in 2023-24, but its cash reserves are set to rise to around $70m after the coming Ashes Tour, largely thanks to the success of red ball cricket. At this stage at least, the sport doesn't need external funding to help prop it up. Some within cricket believe a proportion of any private equity windfall should be placed in a so-called 'future fund' to deliver market returns long into the future, or to provide security for the next pandemic. Some look at the diversified assets of the NRL, which has bought into real estate in recent years, with envy. Others have raised the prospect of infrastructure upgrades within the sport. All agree that at least some needs to be spent on the BBL, to attract more prominent players and improve its global standing. Yet there is concern that cricket's diverse stakeholders may make competing claims on any newfound riches, and turn a once-in-a-lifetime investment injection into a short-term sugar hit. Maxwell, as a player agent, believes athletes must be better paid, but only as part of a broader plan for growth. 'It's not 'pay the players and then build a strategy', it's the other way around,' Maxwell says. 'The players fill that gap and they support that strategy.' Windholz agrees there are positives in having an injection of private capital, 'but the owners of the private capital aren't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts,' he says. 'They want a return on their investment, and that's where the risk lies.'
