We covered this off earlier, but it is worth repeating; Dave Richardson and Greg Jericho have crunched the numbers on where housing affordability is going if no one does anything.

First, let’s look at where we have come from:

In March 2002, the cost of an average dwelling in Sydney was 8.3 times the average annual full-time wage. That of course is expensive, but alas now it looks incredibly cheap. In June 2024, the price of that average dwelling in Sydney is now equivalent 14.4 years earning the average wage in New South Wales.

In dollar terms, the difference is quite shocking. The current average dwelling price in Sydney is $1.45m, but if the price was the same 8.3 times as it was in 2002 that average price would be just $835,000.

In effect, people in Sydney need to pay $615,000 more in today’s dollars for a home than did Sydneysiders 20 years ago.

And where they could go without intervention:

Sydney is clearly the worst place at the moment to buy a house as is well known. However, on recent trends all cities will catch up and pass where Sydney is now. Sydney itself will still be worse than the other capital cities if present trends continue. If the current trend of the past 20 years continues, the average price of a dwelling in Sydney in 2044 would be 23.7 times the average salary – or equivalent in today’s dollars to $2.4m.