Okay, first, I want to be very clear: No matter how old you are, I always recommend you save at least a 10–20% down payment (5% for first-time home buyers), keep your monthly payment to no more than 25% of your take-home pay, and only get a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage.
On the flip side, CoreLogic's study showed that top earners can afford a whopping 85.1 per cent of Australian homes including 93 per cent of all units and 82 per cent of houses.
To have a buffer for potential interest rate or circumstance changes, a Sydney household needs to ideally earn at least $177,155 to avoid winding up in mortgage stress. To buy an apartment in Sydney with the current median of $755,360, you still need an income in excess of $100,221 – or $120,265 to have a buffer.
House prices in Australia are extremely high compared to income, relative to other countries. The market is propped up by rules that provide tax deductions for property investment, and by repeated state government bonuses for first home buyers. Furthermore, the supply of new homes is hard to generate.
Australia's current housing crisis is driven by the nation's unique demographics and a shortage of available residential land near jobs and services, with the impact of interest rates and government homebuyer subsidies often overstated.
Assuming that the average mortgage age in Australia starts somewhere between 25 and 34 years, then to work out the average age to pay off a mortgage in Australia, you just need to add a 25 to a 30-year term. This would make the average age to pay off a mortgage in Australia between 50 and 64 years.
What salary do you need to live in Sydney? To live comfortably in Sydney, you'll need to make between A$5,000 and A$6,000 or about A$95,000 before tax, with the first being per month and the latter being per year. So, you'll need to make sure your income is secure before spending time on a move to this expensive city.
Generally, no. But as a first home buyer, you could apply to the First home super saver (FHHS) scheme. This scheme allows you to make voluntary contributions to your super, which you can then withdraw to use as a house deposit.
This line graph shows that the proportion of owners without a mortgage declined from about 42% in 1994–95 to 30% in 2019–20. This line graph shows that the proportion of owners with a mortgage increased from about 30% in 1994–95 to 37% in 2019–20.
Can you get a home loan on Centrelink benefits? If you receive Centrelink benefits, some lenders will consider these payments as part of your income when assessing a home loan application, but approval is not guaranteed.
Between the 2016 census and this census in 2021, the share of Australians owning their homes remained steady at about 66%.
$70,000 salary
A $70,000 annual gross income with a mortgage at 5.99% p.a. equates to a loan amount of up to $391,222. With a 10% deposit contribution, the maximum affordable property price would be $434,691, or with a 20% deposit $489,027.
As the table below shows, if you are on a single income of $75,000 a year you could afford to borrow $229,700. Assuming you had a 20% deposit, that would mean you could potentially buy a home worth about $287,125.
Income. This is the most important factor in determining how much you can borrow on your home loan. As a guide, it's best if your repayments don't exceed 30% of your after-tax salary. Use our calculators to get a good idea of what your repayments will be once you start making mortgage repayments on your new loan.
And it's certainly not enough to run a household, and pay for a decent standard of living. So Australia's minimum wage is certainly well below a true “living wage.” Minimum wage workers, especially those with any dependents, are likely to live in poverty.
What is the average annual income range for the Australian middle class? The average annual income range for the Australian middle class is between AUD 46,000 and AUD 140,000.
Location – With some parts of Australia (namely: the big cities) having significantly higher costs of living than suburban or remote areas, your location is likely the biggest factor in this discussion. Experience – For someone starting out in their career, $60k is a reasonable pay.
Who is Australia's first home buyer? The ABS has a number of interesting statistics regarding the identities of Australia's first home buyers. The average age is between 31 and 33 and the majority are couples, with about half of these including children.
A good goal is to be debt-free by retirement age, either 65 or earlier if you want. If you have other goals, such as taking a sabbatical or starting a business, you should make sure that your debt isn't going to hold you back.
The mean age of people buying their first home in Australia has edged up from 33 for either a new or established dwelling in 1995–96 to 35 for a new dwelling and 36 for an established dwelling in 2017–18. Figure 1: Age bracket of first home buyers (by percentage) in 1995-96 and 2017-18.
Since the start of the pandemic, the average number of people per Australian household has decreased from about 2.6 residents a household to a bit below 2.55. That may not sound like much, but it means an additional 140,000 houses and apartments are now needed to house the existing population.
Australia's housing crisis has widened beyond homes being too expensive for first home buyers and young families into a fully blown rental emergency in which only four rental listings – out of 45,895 nationally, by charity Anglicare's count – are affordable to a single person on JobSeeker.
Australia has recorded its largest decline in property values on record, with values dropping by 7.9 per cent in a year and the median value of dwellings in more than 200 suburbs dipping below $1 million.