Turkey has seen the highest nominal house price growth in the world, with a massive 59% increase over the past year. Australia was found to have the third most expensive housing market, with Hong Kong ranking first and New Zealand second. A housing bubble is an economic bubble that is typically characterized by a rapid rise in market prices of real estate until they reach unsustainable levels in relation to income and rents, and then decline. In 1947, housing gained its own ministerial portfolio for the first time, and the next two decades saw a boom in the number of houses built.
A lot of public housing was also built and then sold as private property, and people who had served in World War II were eligible for specific home loans for war services. This has led to an increase in the cost of buying a home, which is higher than ever and expected to continue for at least another year. The Demography study noted that Sydney had a median house price-to-median income ratio of 11.8, a level almost double the level that would alarm Australia's banking regulator. This has caused fears that this could lead to a bubble in house prices, as rising house prices and therefore rising lending can lead to difficulties in meeting repayments.
The Affordable Housing in Australia - A Good Home is Hard to Find report stated that the average price of housing in capital cities is now equivalent to more than seven years of average earnings, rising from three in the 1950s to the early 1980s. The cost of borrowing money to buy property is also much more expensive in Australia than in other global hotspots such as the United States, Canada and Hong Kong, despite the fact that the cash rate remained at a record low of 1.5 percent for 33 months. Homes that are three times the median income, or less, are considered “unaffordable” while homes that cost more than five times the median income are considered “severely unaffordable”. It's also worth noting that there were rental controls at the time that were a bit of a deterrent to landlords, which in a way discouraged people from buying houses just to rent them.
We need to re-invest in social housing so that they can accommodate a wider range of people and accommodate them safely and affordably as it has in the past. I would buy a renovated one bedroom, two bathroom, 96 square meter, eighth floor apartment in Central Park South, one of Manhattan's most prestigious locations, just steps from the condominium of former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
