By Adam Coleman

A Residential Development Council report has named Australia as one of the least affordable housing markets in the world, with seven of Australian regional areas making it into the top 15 on the report’s ‘severely unaffordable’ list.

The fifth annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey compared median house prices with median household incomes in 265 markets including Australia, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US.

Queensland received special attention in the report with the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Bundaberg making it into the world’s top ten most unaffordable housing markets along with Sydney in NSW.

Queensland’s Sunshine Coast was ranked as the most unaffordable housing market in the world.

Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) executive director, Greg Hallam said the report “seriously distorted the truth”.

“It’s time the Residential Development Council got real with its research. Throwing up ridiculous, headline-grabbing figures such as they have done benefits nobody,” Mr Hallam said.

“Incredible is the best way to describe the Gold Coast figure of 93 per cent of median household income devoted to median house purchase,” he said.
 
“The most recent (2006) Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), based on the census, showed that mortgage percentage of median income was actually 33 per cent for the Gold Coast, 34 per cent for the Sunshine Coast, 29 per cent for Brisbane City and 26 per cent for Mackay.

“Even though this data is two years old, it is most unlikely the relativities between income and mortgage payments would have changed significantly.

For a copy of the report click here.