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Housing affordability in Australia is among the worst in the world, a further sign that many state and local government polices are inappropriate, the Residential Development Council said.
It said today's release of the Annual Demographia survey rated every Australian city as "seriously" or "severely" unaffordable in a global study of 159 cities, with Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Hobart among the worst 25 cities.
The Residential Development Council, the residential policy arm of the Property Council of Australia, said Australia's poor result was proof that the current policy mix was a toxic cocktail for housing affordability.
"We have four of our cities in the worst 25 when it comes to affordability - surely the message must get through?" said RDC Executive Director Ross Elliott.
The Demographia Survey, released by the US-based Wendell Cox Consultancy, attributes restrictive land release policies and excessive regulatory and zoning controls, combined with high housing taxes, for the Australian problem.
The Demographia survey rates housing "unaffordable" when the median house price passes three times median household incomes.
Housing is "seriously unaffordable" when it passes four times median household incomes and "severely unaffordable" when it passes five times median household incomes.
The least affordable Australian city is Sydney - where median prices are 8.5 times median incomes - even worse than London at 8.3 times incomes and New York at 7.2 times incomes.
"We have maintained that there are three things largely responsible for the worsening housing affordability in this country. Inappropriate land release policies, excessive housing taxes and unfair infrastructure charges, and dysfunctional systems of development assessment," Mr Elliott said in a statement.
"This report now confirms the magnitude of the problem in this country - where with abundant land, there is no excuse for our housing crisis other than bad public policy."