Western Australia and Queensland have emerged as Australia’s affordability havens, with more than half of all the more economical regions across the country located in the two states.
According to the PropTrack Affordability Hotspots Report, the Top 5 affordable capital city regions are all located in Perth, with Kwinana taking out the top spot.
Kwinana, in Perth’s south, has an affordability index of 0.79, while a median income Perth household can still afford 20 per cent of the homes sold there over the past year, spending up to 25 per cent of their pre-tax income.
Gosnells, in Perth’s south east, has an affordability index of 0.71, with a median income family able to afford 16 per cent of the homes sold there in the past year.
In regional areas, on a national level, the Outback South region of Queensland is the most affordable, with an index of 1.41.
Households with a median income can afford to buy 80 per cent of the properties sold in the region in the past year.
PropTrack Senior Economist Paul Ryan said the property market was “incredibly tough” for first-home buyers and lower income households.
“In Western Australia, 41 per cent of regions in the state have a significant proportion of homes affordable to those on median incomes,” he said.
“Queensland and the Northern Territory also have a large portion of regions with more favourable affordability conditions compared to the rest of the country.
“Across regional areas, outback regions top the list for affordability.
“While remote, these regions continue to have high accessibility for households with median incomes, with well above two-thirds of homes considered affordable.”
Sydney remains the least affordable city in Australia, with only 3.8 per cent of home sales affordable for median income households, while 7.1 per cent of home sales were affordable for median income households in Melbourne.
In Sydney, the Parramatta region remains the most affordable, but even there, median income households could only afford 9 per cent of properties sold in the past 12 months.
Due to the high concentration of apartments, the most affordable region in Melbourne was the inner city, with median income households able to afford 24 per cent of sales there in the past year.
In Brisbane, the Springwood-Kingston region was the most affordable, while in Adelaide, Playford, in the north, was the most reasonable.
“The results from this report quantify the challenging state of housing affordability across the country,” Mr Ryan said.
“Very few regions remain affordable to households earning median incomes or lower, highlighting the role that existing wealth plays in entering home ownership given the high level of prices across the country.”
