How do Australian house prices compare to the rest of the world? REA's Nerida Conisbee

EXPERT OBSERVER

A group of economists at the European Commission looked at house prices across the world. Even though we are not in Europe, it does include Australia.

No surprises that Australia nearly tops the list on a house price per square metre basis.

Hong Kong smashes Australia but was too expensive to put on the chart at more than 6x the price per square metre than Australia.

In pretty much every analysis of Australia’s house price, we consistently have some of the most expensive housing in the world.

If you want cheap, Bulgaria is your best bet.

Source: The Unassuming Economist

Pricing may be one thing, but relativity to income is also important.

Given that Australia is such a wealthy country, this metric does push us down a bit when we look at the years of income required to purchase a house.

Affordability in Australia is better than New Zealand for example.

As way of comparison, under four years of average income is required to buy a house of average size in the United States, while in Australia, it’s 16 years.

The median across countries is 10 years

Source: The Unassuming Economist

NERIDA CONISBEE is the chief economist for the REA Group