IT’S not every day that Bendigo is compared with New York, Miami, Christchurch and Wellington.
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But the five locations have at least one thing in common – they had almost identical ratings for the unaffordability of housing for middle income earners, an international study has found.
The 2017 Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey found Bendigo is “severely unaffordable” – but its result has improved since 12 months ago.
The survey measures 406 housing markets in nine countries by dividing the median house price by the median income.
In Bendigo, the median house price was $335,000, with median income at $58,300. It gave Bendigo a score of 5.7 – the same as New York and New Jersey, and just under Miami, Wellington and Christchurch.
Bendigo’s score was 6.0 one year ago, reflecting a slight change towards affordability.
A score of 5.1 and above is severely unaffordable, according to the measure. Thirty-three of the 54 housing markets in Australia achieved this measure.
Bendigo ranked as more affordable than every Australian capital city except Hobart and Darwin, but less affordable than similar regional cities of Ballarat, Toowoomba, Tamworth, Bundaberg and Launceston.
Yet overall house prices in Australia have gone “through the roof” in recent years, according to New Zealand Initiative executive director Oliver Hartwich who wrote the introduction to the 2017 report.
He singled out Australia as having one of the least affordable housing markets in the world.
Dr Hartwich said the difference between affordably and unaffordable housing markets came down to attracting demand for housing stock.
“In Germany and Switzerland, council budgets largely depend on their ability to attract new residents and taxpayers,” he said.
“This is why both countries are have traditionally had a more responsive and flexible housing supply side.
“The available financial incentives to planners and councillors made all the difference to house prices in the long run.”
In Bendigo, like in most of Australia, it appears to be heading in the opposite direction.
Less than a third own their house outright, a further 35.5 per cent have a mortgage and 28 per cent are renting, data from the latest Census revealed. The level of home ownership in Bendigo was the same as the Australian average, and it was on the decline across the board.
In Sydney, the median house price was more than 11 times the median income – the second worst disparity in the world.
In Melbourne, it was almost 10 times.
Bendigo was the 66th most unaffordable housing market of the 406 measured.