Australian Homes Among Most Attainable in Asia-Pacific

Bigger, more expensive but relatively affordable—that is how Australian homes stack up against their Asia-Pacific neighbours.

The latest report by Urban Land Institute compared Australian houses and apartment to available data for 44 cities, almost half the world’s population. 

Only apartments in Singapore, Melbourne and Brisbane were considered affordable in the Asia-Pacific Home Attainability Index.

To be considered affordable, homes must cost less than five times the median annual income.

Most attainable property makets

^{^Source: 2023 ULI Home Attainability Index} 

The findings were unusual insomuch as Australian cities were considered among the most expensive for construction with prices growing at the fastest rate in the world until recently.

Although home prices in developing cities were substantially lower, they were 8 to 30 times the median income, making them less attainable.

In this year’s ULI report, Indonesia, India, the Phillipines and Vietnam were included in the data, representing 24 per cent of the global population.

Despite the relative attainability of Australian homes, the situation has deteriorated in the past couple of years with nearly 2 per cent of the population now homeless.

Least attainable property makets

^{^Source: 2023 ULI Home Attainability Index} 

Trends found across the Asia-Pacific region were renting was cheaper than buying, gateway cities were less attainable for buying, and wages were the biggest contributors to home attainability.

For a home to be considered affordable for renting it needed to be less than 25 per cent of the monthly income, making Japan the best for renters. 

South Korea and second-tier mainland China were also affordable but all homes in the Philippines and Indonesia were unaffordable. In the Philippines capital Manila, homes in the metro region rent for 166 per cent of annual income.

Australian results were better than most of the other cities for renters.

Sydney houses had a ratio of rent to income at 29 per cent, units 25 per cent, Melbourne houses were 22 per cent, units 21 per cent and Brisbane recorded 29 per cent for houses and 25 per cent for units.

However, there was a lack of data on informal housing, in places such as India, where only 10 to 20 per cent of the market has legal titles.