Australian Capital Cities becoming more expensive to live in

[Cerberus1]

According to the latest 'Cost of Living Index' (compiled by price aggregation website Numbeo.com), many Australian capital cities have become more expensive over the past year compared to the rest of the world.

Australia's most expensive city — Sydney — has risen to number 32 in this year's Cost of Living Index, up from 41 last year.

Melbourne rose to 64, up from 77, while Adelaide, Cairns, Hobart and Canberra also moved up the list to 58, 69, 82 and 103 respectively.

Only Perth (56), Darwin (68) and Brisbane (93) have become more affordable.

The UNSW Business School's Professor Kristy Muir, chief of the Centre for Social Impact, said although we have had a "couple of decades of the strongest growth in GDP" and are seeing low inflation rates around the country, "day to day this doesn't reflect individuals' household living expenses".

"The cost of living for people on welfare is particularly challenging because you have a limited amount of income coming in, and yet your expenses have increased.

"Housing has gone up, whether you're paying rent or whether you're paying mortgages.

"The amount of money people are spending on housing has gone up relative to increases in wages or wage growth."

But Professor Muir said it was important to realise that not all of those who live in poverty were unemployed.

"One in three people who are living in poverty actually have wages, so we have challenges not just about how we make sure people have jobs, but we also want people to have stable jobs," she said.

"We want them to have jobs that are secure, and we need them to be able to get the amount of hours to be able to work to cover their living costs."

The top 10 most expensive countries has remained largely unchanged over the past 12 months, with Hamilton in Bermuda hanging onto the top spot and Swiss cities including Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Bern dominating the top 10.

New York came in at number 14, with Tokyo at 21 and Paris at 23.

At 42 on the list was London, which again ranked more affordable than Sydney.

The index, which uses New York prices as a benchmark, showed the cost of living in Sydney it was 91 per cent of New York's and in London it was 89 per cent.

Nationally, the Numbeo report found costs like groceries, rent and restaurant prices were most expensive in Sydney and Darwin, while cities like Hobart, Cairns and the Gold Coast had some of the cheapest.

[Rallyman]

On 18/01/2018 at 21:41, Cerberus1 said:

According to the latest 'Cost of Living Index' (compiled by price aggregation website Numbeo.com), many Australian capital cities have become more expensive over the past year compared to the rest of the world.

Australia's most expensive city — Sydney — has risen to number 32 in this year's Cost of Living Index, up from 41 last year.

Melbourne rose to 64, up from 77, while Adelaide, Cairns, Hobart and Canberra also moved up the list to 58, 69, 82 and 103 respectively.

Only Perth (56), Darwin (68) and Brisbane (93) have become more affordable.

The UNSW Business School's Professor Kristy Muir, chief of the Centre for Social Impact, said although we have had a "couple of decades of the strongest growth in GDP" and are seeing low inflation rates around the country, "day to day this doesn't reflect individuals' household living expenses".

"The cost of living for people on welfare is particularly challenging because you have a limited amount of income coming in, and yet your expenses have increased.

"Housing has gone up, whether you're paying rent or whether you're paying mortgages.

"The amount of money people are spending on housing has gone up relative to increases in wages or wage growth."

But Professor Muir said it was important to realise that not all of those who live in poverty were unemployed.

"One in three people who are living in poverty actually have wages, so we have challenges not just about how we make sure people have jobs, but we also want people to have stable jobs," she said.

"We want them to have jobs that are secure, and we need them to be able to get the amount of hours to be able to work to cover their living costs."

The top 10 most expensive countries has remained largely unchanged over the past 12 months, with Hamilton in Bermuda hanging onto the top spot and Swiss cities including Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Bern dominating the top 10.

New York came in at number 14, with Tokyo at 21 and Paris at 23.

At 42 on the list was London, which again ranked more affordable than Sydney.

The index, which uses New York prices as a benchmark, showed the cost of living in Sydney it was 91 per cent of New York's and in London it was 89 per cent.

Nationally, the Numbeo report found costs like groceries, rent and restaurant prices were most expensive in Sydney and Darwin, while cities like Hobart, Cairns and the Gold Coast had some of the cheapest.

Spent some time down in sydney in the new year with family over on holiday 

Beer was cheaper down there than locally as was breakfast and meals out certainly no more expensive than the Hunter and Newcastle , house prices yes fuel same price , public transport was good with the opal card and fairly cheap 

[Cerberus1]

Australia's five biggest cities have "severely unaffordable" housing markets, according to an international housing affordability think tank.

Sydney was ranked "second worst", with house prices almost 13 times higher than the median household income, Demographia said in its 14th annual report.

It was beaten only by Hong Kong, where property prices were about 20 times higher than household incomes.

Also in the list of top-10 "least affordable" housing markets were Vancouver, San Jose, Melbourne (fifth place), Los Angeles, Honolulu, San Francisco, Auckland and London (in that order).

The study found Melbourne's house prices were almost 10 times higher than the median household income.

As for Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth, they came in at 16th, 18th and 21st place respectively — with house prices about six times more than incomes.

 

 

[ABG]

Australia's five biggest cities have "severely unaffordable" housing markets, according to an international housing affordability think tank.
Sydney was ranked "second worst", with house prices almost 13 times higher than the median household income, Demographia said in its 14th annual report.
It was beaten only by Hong Kong, where property prices were about 20 times higher than household incomes.
Also in the list of top-10 "least affordable" housing markets were Vancouver, San Jose, Melbourne (fifth place), Los Angeles, Honolulu, San Francisco, Auckland and London (in that order).
The study found Melbourne's house prices were almost 10 times higher than the median household income.
As for Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth, they came in at 16th, 18th and 21st place respectively — with house prices about six times more than incomes.

 
 

When compared to income in the city rather than national average, Oxford is actually the UKs most unaffordable city with a house price: income ratio of 10.7. I’m looking forward to moving to Melbourne for “more affordable” housing [emoji23]

[s713]

All capital cities are becoming more expensive to live in. Anywhere that people WANT to move to and live in is becoming more expensive. Places that are cheap are probably so because no-one is arsed about them.

[bristolman]

I'm not really sure how Brisbane has become MORE affordable as prices have gone through the roof, it can only become more affordable if property prices fall or wages leap up, neither of which has happened. 

[Bulya]

If it keeps the hoi polloi out it isn’t a bad thing 

[Skani]

On 1/31/2018 at 23:46, bristolman said:

I'm not really sure how Brisbane has become MORE affordable as prices have gone through the roof, it can only become more affordable if property prices fall or wages leap up, neither of which has happened. 

It's in relation to the other cities in the survey:  not that Brisbane is any cheaper but that the costs in others have grown at an even faster rate.

[Steve99]

On 06/02/2018 at 07:46, Bulya said:

If it keeps the hoi polloi out it isn’t a bad thing 

You mean like real people?  teachers? bus drivers? nurses? shop workers?  is this the hoi polloi that you dont need near your home and workplace? These hoi polloi and many more cannot afford to :

a) live anywhere near where they work if it is in one of Oz's so called capital cities (we only have one real capital city)  ie they become the fringe dwellers (still stuck with mega mortgages and rents)  and:

b) afford to live an independent life re proper housing etc without recourse to family money or other handouts

 

 This is why my wife and I moved back to the UK.  We have a much higher quality of life there than we could possibly imagine here, purely due to housing costs..

 

ps.  This survey is assuming the costs in US $ from the viewpoint of being someone from NewYork   and as the Oz$ is down against that the last few years makes us look less expensive however do the sums in Aus$ and wages and you get a completely different result.

Edited February 10, 2018 by Steve99

[Toots]

14 minutes ago, Steve99 said:

You mean like real people?  teachers? bus drivers? nurses? shop workers?  is this the hoi polloi that you dont need near your home and workplace? These hoi polloi and many more cannot afford to :

a) live anywhere near where they work if it is in one of Oz's so called capital cities (we only have one real capital city)  ie they become the fringe dwellers (still stuck with mega mortgages and rents)  and:

b) afford to live an independent life re proper housing etc without recourse to family money or other handouts

 

 This is why my wife and I moved back to the UK.  We have a much higher quality of life there than we could possibly imagine here, purely due to housing costs..

 

ps.  This survey is assuming the costs in US $ from the viewpoint of being someone from NewYork   and as the Oz$ is down against that the last few years makes us look less expensivce however do the sums in Aus$ and wages and you get a completely different result.

 .................  and this is why a few of us on this forum warn would be migrants who have a good life in a nice area in the UK to think very carefully about what to expect when they arrive here to live and hopefully find a job.  Life was a lot easier for those of us who migrated a few decades ago.  Things have changed since then.

[bristolman]

7 hours ago, Toots said:

 .................  and this is why a few of us on this forum warn would be migrants who have a good life in a nice area in the UK to think very carefully about what to expect when they arrive here to live and hopefully find a job.  Life was a lot easier for those of us who migrated a few decades ago.  Things have changed since then.

As I have said before if 20 odd years ago people had told me that the UK would become the cheaper option I would have called them mad.