'Painful' Graph Reveals How Long It Takes To Save For A House Deposit In Australia

Better get the piggy bank out...

'Painful' Graph Reveals How Long It Takes To Save For A House Deposit In Australia

Image: Wikimedia Commons

We all know that the Australian property market is bonkers.

For many years, property prices in our major cities – particularly Sydney – have been astronomic. But over the last twelve months, we’ve also seen regional property prices soar, as city slickers continue to try and escape The Spicy Cough by finding comfier digs further afield to work from home in.

But with something as fluid and complex as the property market, it can be hard to discern just how unaffordable it is. Thankfully (or rather regrettably, considering the circumstances) a recent study has laid the extent of the problem bare for all to see – and the results are even worse than you might have anticipated.

Property platform homesales.com.au, using data from ANZ’s most recent Housing Affordability Report, has graphed how long it would take the average Aussie to save for a 20% house deposit in each of our major cities. The results are shocking – with Sydneysiders potentially facing a gruelling 11 years or more.

Image: homesales.com.au via news.com.au

Canberrans are the least worst off, with just under a seven-year wait – but seven years is still a bloody long time.

In an article published on news.com.au, Australian finance writer Tarric Brooker relates that “yet again, house prices are acting like a fault line, as the tectonic plates of Australia’s long-simmering intergenerational conflict continue to shift.”

“Older Australians claim that young people want too much, too fast and are impatient to get the things they desire. They claim many prospective first homebuyers spend far more on gadgets, overseas holidays and other non-essentials than they ever did. They then conclude that this unnecessary spending is why home ownership is increasingly out of reach.”

“Younger Australians counter this by pointing out that the required size of a home deposit relative to income has never been greater and that the nation’s property prices are extremely high, even by international standards.”

“Like most hotly contested and heavily divisive debates, there is a grain of truth on both sides of the argument. However, even after all the spending on iPhones, holidays and even the now legendary smashed avocado on toast has been taken into account, the net result is still many young families and individuals are priced out of the housing market.”

RELATED: ‘It’s Like Reading Roman History’: The Truth About Australia’s Housing Market

With the scaling back of JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments, things are likely to get even worse in the short to medium term, as a majority of Australian businesses continue to struggle with the economic downturn, further affecting that deposit wait time.

It could be worse – as propertyclub.nyc relates, it takes the average New Yorker over a century to afford a down payment on a Manhattan house…

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