How does housing affordability in Australia compare internationally?

Australia's price-to-income index reached 150.3 in the December quarter of 2025, measured against its own long-run average of 100. That was the highest reading among the 21 OECD countries with data for the quarter, ahead of Canada at 147.3 and the OECD aggregate at 108.4.

Measured instead against a fixed 2015 base, Australia's index was 121.8, an increase of 79.4% since the March quarter of 2000. The OECD aggregate rose 18.8% over the same period, while Canada's index increased by 95.2%.

A third measure examines housing-cost burden rather than house prices relative to income. In 2021, 6.5% of Australians lived in households spending more than 40% of disposable income on rent or mortgage payments, below the OECD average of 9.2%. Australia's figure predates the rise in the Reserve Bank of Australia cash rate target that began in May 2022.

The OECD also publishes cross-country housing-quality indicators HC2.1 to HC2.3 and the subjective indicator HC1.4. These measure different dimensions of housing affordability and are not used in this article. The OECD does not publish a standard cross-country indicator for residual income measures.

The choice between the 30% and 40% thresholds is arbitrary, and neither holds the same meaning across the income distribution: for a low-income household, even spending 10% or 20% of income on housing costs may leave little for other essentials.

Greater Sydney rose 58.9% over the same seven years, ranking fourth among the eight regions, behind Greater Hobart, Canberra at 64.6% and Greater Melbourne at 60.2%.

A national figure averages across that range. The same limitation applies to the national figures quoted for every other country in this article.

Housing costs, including rent, rates and mortgage repayments, accounted for a median 14.8% of gross household income across Australia's capital cities in the 2019-20 financial year, the most recent year available. The figure ranged from 13.3% in Greater Adelaide to 16.8% in Greater Sydney.

Greater Sydney records 16.8%, the highest published estimate among the eight areas, with a margin of error of 1.0 percentage point. That interval overlaps those of Greater Brisbane and Greater Darwin, so the published table alone does not establish a statistically clear ordering among the three.

Greater Melbourne, Greater Hobart and the ACT each record 13.6%, while Greater Adelaide records 13.3%. All four intervals overlap, so the table does not support ranking them against one another.

Greater Hobart recorded the largest price rise to 2021 but sits in the lower group on cost burden at 13.6%. Price growth and cost burden order the cities differently.

The national medians from the same survey are 13.7% for all households, 16.4% for owners with a mortgage and 22.3% for private renters.

Seven of the eight areas rose over the period. Germany fell 7.6%, starting at 116.4 in the March quarter of 2000, above its own long-run average, and declining through the 2000s.

A full-period figure can hide reversals within the period. Three examples show this:

• New Zealand's index peaked at 142.9 in the December quarter of 2021 and fell to 101.3 by the December quarter of 2025.
• France's fell from 100.6 in the March quarter of 2015 to 93.8 in the December quarter of 2025.
• Australia's fell from 119.4 in the March quarter of 2022 to 113.9 in the December quarter of 2022, then rose again.

Australia's index rose 17.6% between the December quarter of 2019 and the December quarter of 2025, the largest increase of the eight areas over that window. The United States rose 16.9%, the OECD aggregate 7.5%, and Canada 6.3%.

Four of the eight fell over the same six years:

• United Kingdom, down 0.6%
• New Zealand, down 6.5%
• Germany, down 7.9%
• France, down 8.5%

Canada led the full period since 2000 and Australia led the six years to the December quarter of 2025, so the two windows order the same areas differently.

The three differences are:

• Australia values the total stock of dwellings rather than transactions.
• The United States prices sales of existing single-family dwellings only.
• Canada covers 11 main cities rather than the whole country.

The remaining four series cover sales of new and existing dwellings across the whole country. Seasonal adjustment also differs. Five of the seven series are adjusted using the same method, while the United States and France are adjusted nationally before their figures are included in the OECD index.

The price-to-income measure excludes household borrowing costs entirely, according to the OECD.

Australia's index rose 5.1% between the December quarter of 2021 and the March quarter of 2026, its latest available quarter. The RBA cash rate target rose 4.25 percentage points between 31 December 2021 and 17 June 2026, from 0.10% to 4.35%. The price-to-income index measures changes in house prices relative to disposable income per head, not changes in borrowing costs.

The average rate on outstanding owner-occupier housing loans was 6.20% in May 2026, the latest month in the RBA's Table F6, and 6.22% on new owner-occupier loans funded that month. The RBA describes these rates as indicative and subject to revision. The series begins in July 2019, so no official equivalent measure extends back to 2000.

The same ABS survey reports two different housing-cost-to-income ratios for 2019–20: 14% under the published definition and 12% under the alternative definition.

Income definitions differ between the two sources. The ABS ratios use gross household income without adjustment for household size. The OECD burdens use disposable income, equivalised by the square root of household size. The two are not interchangeable, which is why the ABS city figures and the OECD country figures appear in separate sections.

The ABS counts Rent Assistance as income and does not offset it from housing costs. In 2019-20 it made up 8% of the reported income of households receiving it, on the ABS estimate.

The OECD workbook published in October 2025 records New Zealand's 2024 price-to-income index at 119.6. The live database accessed in August 2026 averages 109.1 for the same year, a difference of 10.5 index points. Both figures are means of four quarterly observations, so the difference reflects a revision between vintages rather than a difference in calculation.