Reporter Ben Knight revealed that Melbourne’s median house price is above $700,000 and Sydney’s median house price is “a tick under $1 million”. Ben also revealed that it takes 10 times the average wage to buy a median-priced home in Melbourne and more than 12 times the average wage to buy in Sydney.

What about us?

And this is the single greatest problem with the negative gearing debate. It is being driven by politicians who live in Sydney and Melbourne and it is being debated by a media based in Sydney and Melbourne.

What Mr Knight didn’t mention was that greater Brisbane’s median house price is $498,000 which is around six times the annual average income. In Adelaide, with its median house price of $494,284, it’s seven times the average annual South Australian income and in Perth, where the median is $540,000, it’s six times the annual average WA income (according to ABS data).

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Regional Queensland

These are levels in line with conditions in the market a decade ago. Nothing much has changed. And if you go out of the capital cities and venture into the regions, especially regional Queensland, the contrast is much more stark.

In Mackay, $328,000 will buy you a five bedroom home on 800sq m with a pool, just 3km from the town centre. More than 5000 investors in Mackay use negative gearing, but you could hardly make the case that first-home buyers are being pushed out of the market in Mackay. Labor’s proposed negative gearing changes will be detrimental throughout regional Queensland. For the complete article from the REIQ Click Here.

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