Sydney — First home buyer affordability has deteriorated further across Australia, with new data showing deposits and mortgage costs reaching record highs despite the Albanese government's election promises to tackle the housing crisis, the ABC reports.
The Domain Real Estate report paints a grim picture: young Australians are being locked out of home ownership permanently. Median house prices in Sydney now require deposits exceeding $150,000, while mortgage serviceability tests make even modest properties unaffordable for average earners.
This is the defining domestic policy failure for the Albanese government. Labor campaigned on housing affordability, promised a Help to Buy scheme, pledged new construction targets, and committed to better rental protections. None of it has moved the needle.
Prices keep rising. Deposits keep growing. Young Australians keep being pushed further from the dream their parents took for granted.
The numbers vary by city, but the trend is universal. Melbourne buyers need deposits approaching $120,000. Brisbane, once the affordable alternative, now requires over $90,000. Even regional centers are pricing out locals as tree-changers and remote workers drive up demand.
Mortgage stress is climbing too. Even those who scraped together deposits are struggling with repayments as interest rates remain elevated. The Reserve Bank has held rates steady, but borrowers who locked in during the pandemic are hitting the end of fixed-rate periods and facing payment shocks.
The government's Help to Buy scheme—offering shared equity to help buyers with smaller deposits—has done little to address the core problem: there aren't enough homes, and those that exist cost too much. Demand-side subsidies just push prices higher unless supply increases dramatically.
Opposition housing spokesperson Michael Sukkar has attacked Labor's record, though the Coalition's own housing policies while in government weren't notably better. Both major parties have failed to solve a crisis decades in the making.
Mate, an entire generation is being locked out. That's not a policy hiccup—it's a systemic failure. If owning a home becomes impossible for average workers, the whole social contract breaks down.
