The upside-down map of Australia showing the grim reality of how much you really need to earn to afford a house
- Upside down map highlights expensive housing
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Australia's cheapest major city is a long way from anywhere - inspiring an upside down map of the nation which has divided opinion.
Darwin, Australia's most affordable capital city in the tropical Top End, still requires a six-figure salary for someone to be able to buy the median-priced house without being in mortgage stress.
Sydney, Australia's most expensive market, requires an aspiring home buyer to command a $295,000 salary - which would put them among the top 1.5 per cent of income earners.
Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart are also unattainable for single-income earners buying on their own - a situation unthinkable a generation ago.
Andrew Mitchell, the founder of Ophir Asset Management, posted the upside down map on LinkedIn to illustrate how buying a house is now unattainable for most single people.
'The great Australian dream to own your home has been turned upside down,' he said.
Mr Mitchell, whose company invests billions of dollars for super funds, individual investors and family trusts, blamed local councils and negative gearing tax breaks for investor landlords for Australia's housing crisis.
'The dream to own a house was not always so far out of reach,' he said.
Australia's cheapest major city is a long way from anywhere - inspiring an upside down map
'Decades of banking sector deregulation, favourable tax for investors, structurally lower rates, more dual income households and zoning restrictions have all worked to drives prices higher.'
Another investment specialist commenting on Mr Mitchell's post said unaffordable housing discouraged innovation.
'Such a waste of almost entirely unproductive capital,' he said.
'Capital in land mostly doesn't employ anyone, it doesn't develop new products or services and it doesn't add to the economy.
'It's difficult to imagine that having such expensive property doesn't negatively impact people starting new businesses, investing in other businesses or productive assets, support startups and innovation. It really doesn't bode well for the future.'
Another comment by a man working in finance argued that telling young people it was too hard would only discourage them.
'Seems to me this is an argument for getting started young; not just perpetuating the whole "it's too hard to buy a house" thematic. It is hard,' he said.
'In my experience, it has always been hard. It's just that the why of it being hard changes.
'Owning your own home is the cornerstone of personal financial success in Australia.
'How about we all commit to helping the younger generation work out how they will get into the housing market, rather than psychologically bullying them with the constant it's too hard mantra?'
Sydney is by far Australia's most expensive market with someone needing to earn $295,000 - putting them among the top 1.5 per cent of income earners - to afford a median-priced house worth $1.466million with a 20 per cent deposit and not be in mortgage stress
Sydney is by far Australia's most expensive market with someone needing to earn $295,000 to afford a median-priced house worth $1.466million with a 20 per cent deposit and not be in mortgage stress.
That is where a borrower is spending 30 per cent or more of their pay on mortgage repayments on a 6.5 per cent variable rate.
A house buyer in this situation would also owe the bank less than four times their earnings before tax.
Baby boomers were able to do this in the 1980s buying the middle-priced house in Sydney or Melbourne, but without having to earn an astronomically-high salary.
At the bottom of the upside down map, Darwin requires a salary of $125,000 - a wage 27 per cent higher than Australia's average, full-time salary of $98,218 - to afford a $589,166 house, based on CoreLogic data.
Melbourne requires a salary of $190,000 to afford a $948,879 house.
Brisbane had required a $178,000 wage in early 2024 but the median house price is now $953,028, meaning someone would now need to earn $195,000.
Adelaide requires an income of $164,000 to buy an $824,669 house, compared with $150,000 in Hobart to buy a house priced at $691,339.
Perth had required a $140,000 salary to buy the typical house but with the median house price now at $791,926, a $162,000 wage would now be required.
House prices in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane surged by double-digit figures during the last financial year even though Reserve Bank interest rates are at a 12-year high of 4.35 per cent.
A record 547,300 migrants, on a net basis, moved to Australia in 2023 - the most ever for a calendar year, with new housing supply lagging behind population growth.
