As if the prospect of owning a property wasn't daunting enough, a global study has revealed the most unaffordable cities to buy a house – and we're saddened to reveal that Melbourne has landed at ninth on the list. But hey, that's better than seventh, which is where our city ranked last year. Gotta look at the (small) positives, right?
For more than 20 years, the Demographia International Housing Affordability Report has analysed middle-income housing affordability across 95 major markets in eight countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. To determine the rankings, the researchers at Chapman University compare median house prices to median household incomes, scoring each market on a scale from ‘affordable’ (3.0 or less) to ‘impossibly unaffordable’ (9.0 or more).
For the first time ever, not a single one of the 95 housing markets assessed was classified as ‘affordable’. This news is even more grim for potential Aussie homebuyers, with Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth joining Melbourne among the 15 least affordable places to buy a home worldwide in 2025.
While Melbourne's ranking of ninth, with a median multiple score of 9.7, is a shock, spare a thought for anyone hoping to buy a home in Sydney. Australia’s largest capital city is the second least affordable major property market in the world, with a staggering median multiple score of 13.8. That means the median house prices across the city are between nine and 15 times the median household income. Gulp!
Adelaide actually jumped three spots from 2024, switching places with Melbourne to land in sixth place with a median multiple of 10.9. Brisbane ranked 11th with a score of 9.3, while Perth’s score of 8.3 was just shy of the ‘impossibly unaffordable’ category, placing it as the 14th most unaffordable housing market in the world.
The report described it as “remarkable” that these Aussie cities are now “less affordable than widely recognised world cities like New York, London or Chicago”.
According to the report, the housing affordability crisis is largely driven by “urban containment” measures such as growth boundaries and restrictive land-use policies. It also identified land value as the biggest cost factor in these markets, with prices soaring in areas where development was allowed near previously restricted zones. For more, you can explore the full report here.
The 15 most unaffordable housing markets in the world
- Hong Kong
- Sydney
- San Jose
- Vancouver
- Los Angeles
- Adelaide
- Honolulu
- San Francisco
- Melbourne
- San Diego
- Brisbane
- London
- Toronto
- Perth
- Miami
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