The value of Australian homes has surpassed $8 trillion, surpassing the GDP of nearly every country on Earth.
CoreLogic, a real estate research firm, estimated Friday that the overall value of residential real estate in Australia has reached $8.1 trillion.
This is more than $310,000 per Australian citizen and exceeds the GDP of any country except the United States and China.
This translates into a nearly doubling of the value of Australian real estate over the last decade.
“This values Australian residential property at approximately four times the size of the country’s GDP and approximately $1 trillion more than the combined value of the ASX, superannuation, and commercial real estate,” CoreLogic head of research Eliza Owen said in a statement.
CoreLogic’s national home value index increased 1.8 percent in April, following a 32-month peak of 2.8 percent the previous month.
The index is 10.2 percent higher than it was in September, when the pandemic-induced low was reached.
CoreLogic reported that many Australian housing prices were at their height, boosted by record low interest rates and government grants, with national home values rising 6.8 percent in the three months to April.
“The rise in the valuation of residential real estate has left Australian homeowners in a good equity position, with the Reserve Bank of Australia forecasting that only 1.3% of housing loans will be in a negative equity position at the start of 2021,” Ms Owen explained.
“However, for many Australians seeking to enter the housing market, the market’s continued strength is pushing home ownership further out of reach, amid record low mortgage rates.
“Wages simply aren’t keeping up.”
According to comparison website Finder, aspiring Australian homeowners need a six-figure down payment to get their foot in the real estate door.
More than 10% will need more than a decade to save the necessary number, according to a survey of 1028 first-time buyers.
According to the most recent ABS data, the average deposit required to secure a mortgage is $106,743, which is 16% more than was required two years ago.
Almost a third of first-time buyers surveyed said they used the “bank of mum and dad,” with parents lending an estimated $29 billion to their adult children to invest in bricks and mortar in the last year.
