- Alan Kohler made a sad confession about owning a home
- He said the dream of a house with a backyard ‘may be over’
Alan Kohler has admitted the Australian dream of owning a house with a backyard “may” be over for aspiring homeowners as migration-fuelled demand has made house prices unaffordable for many.
ABC’s financial expert made the somber admission on Q+A Monday night.
A young man named Samuel wondered if the ‘Australian dream of a house with a backyard in a city is over for my entire generation?’
Mr. Kohler replied simply, “It could be.”
“The backyard has really become expensive, especially if it’s close to the city,” he said.
‘We are now in a situation where we have to live far outside the city if we want a backyard.’
Housing and Homelessness Minister Clare O’Neil said thatThe government is trying to ‘do everything’ for young home buyers, while at the same time maintaining unbridled price increases on the housing market.
“If you want more space, you may have to move further out of town, but what we really need are lots of options for young people like you,” she said.
ABC financial expert Alan Kohler made the somber admission that the dream of a house with a backyard in Australia ‘may be over’
‘And right now there isn’t enough, but our government is doing everything it can to create more.’
Shadow minister Michael Sukkar admitted that new buyers cannot hope for a “traditional 800 square metre block” in a sought-after area and will either have to move to the countryside or give up their garden.
“The cheapest form of housing is a detached house,” said Mr Sukkar.
‘That is the domain of first-home buyers, because construction costs are different than elsewhere.
“Nobody would consider the backyard to be dead, but the truth is that in those completely inner-city neighborhoods it may not be the same as it used to be.”
In April it was announced that house prices in Australia’s capital cities had risen by as much as 20 percent over the past year.
In Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane, house prices reached record highs, while in Sydney house prices were just 1.4 per cent below their level two years ago.
Perth led the way in price growth, with the average house price rising by almost $142,000 to $735,276. However, all capital cities except Darwin and Hobart saw significant price increases.
In Brisbane, the annual price rose by 15.9 percent, bringing the average price to $909,988.
A young man named Samuel wondered if the ‘Australian dream of owning a house with a backyard in a city is over for my entire generation?’ (stock image)
Prices rose by $137,968 in a year and by $10,514 in a month in a city with a population growth of 3.1 percent.
In Sydney, the average house price rose 10.7 per cent over the year to $1,414,229. That’s an increase of $183,648 on the year before, including a one-month increase of $18,425.
Despite the increase, house prices in Australia’s most populous city were still 1.4 percent below their January 2022 peak.