It is now harder than ever for young Aussies to buy their first home, according to new analysis exposing the enduring impact of the nation’s longest property boom.
PropTrack’s generational study compared the average cost of a house in 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010, before adjusting the price for inflation to show what that price is equivalent to today.
The results are surprising, to say the least.
Here’s what the report had to say about your market
QUEENSLAND
It is now five times harder for young Queenslanders to buy their first home, according to PropTrack.
A typical house in Brisbane, which cost just $32,750 in 1980, is now valued at an astounding 420 per cent more when adjusted for inflation.
In 1980, the $32,750 spent on a home equates to about $174,600 in today’s purchasing power, yet the current median house price has skyrocketed to $910,000.
The data reveals a major decline in affordability, with property prices outpacing wage growth and creating huge barriers for first-home buyers.
Brisbane’s median value surged from $32,750 in December 1980 to $95,000 in December 1990, $152,000 in 2000, $465,000 in 2010,and $910,000 by March 2025.
Brisbane units show a similar, though slightly less dramatic, trend, rising from $38,750 in 1980 to $636,000 today.
On the Gold Coast, houses in Surfers Paradise were already more expensive than Brisbane in 1980 at $74,500. That figure would be equivalent to $397,200 considering rising living costs, yet a typical home in the Glitter Strip now costs $1.35m.
It is now five times harder for young Queenslanders like Chris Conway and his wife Ellie to buy their first home. Picture: John Gass
VICTORIA
The Baby Boomers really did have it better when it comes to housing with inflation and wage growth accounting for only a tiny fraction of Melbourne’s property price rises since the 1980s.
In the 1980s, a Toorak house might have set you back $160,500, or about $824,000 in today’s money.
The suburb’s typical residence is now worth $4.8m, almost six times higher, and far in front of inflation, while the Greater Melbourne median house price is just over $900,000.
Suburbs like Malvern, Brighton, Kew and Albert Park have also recorded inflation-adjusted increases of between $2m and $3m, indicating younger generations really are facing a more difficult prospect of buying.
Even in outer suburbs like Ferntree Gully, once a launch pad for working-class homeownership, prices have soared.
A house that cost $46,000 in 1980, about $236,000 today, now has a median of over $870,000.
Melbourne homebuyers in the 1980s paid the equivalent of a deposit for homes that are now worth millions, but today’s buyers face a very different reality. Lenita Psychogios works in construction and has just purchased a property in St Kilda. Picture: David Crosling
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
The cost of buying a house or unit in Adelaide today far eclipses what it has cost in previous decades, even when you factor in inflation.
In 1990, Adelaide’s median house price was $98,000, which in today’s money would be $247,800.
Yet Adelaide’s median now sits at $832,500, making it 8.49 times what it was back them, and 3.5 times what it would have been in today’s dollars.
The Gap closes slightly when you look at the median price in 2000. Adelaide’s median house price then was $135,000, or $264,000in today’s dollars.
This means the current median is more than six times that median, and still 3.15 times what it would be in today’s currency.
In 2010, Adelaide’s median had leapt to $405,000, or $592,600 in today’s money.
Today’s median priced house is double this, and almost one-and-a-half times more expensive than what that 2010 median would have been in today’s money.
In 1990, Adelaide’s most expensive properties were Walkerville houses, which had a median price of $242,500.
That money today won’t even buy you Adelaide’s cheapest properties today – Kurralta Park units, which have a median price of $385,000.
ICU nurse Ellissa Noolan, 27, and her partner Ryan Litchfield, 30, who recently bought through a HomeStart loan in Happy Valley. Picture: Dean Martin.
NORTHERN TERRITORY
Darwin homebuyers are paying up to 31 per cent less for houses than they were in 2010, and up to 54 per cent less for units.
Stuart Park is the only suburb where buyers are paying more today when looking at the adjusted values, with the median house price up 13 per cent from $786,700 (adjusted for inflation) to $891,000.
In Gunn, buyers are paying 31 per cent less than in 2010, with the suburb recording a current average house price of $522,500 compared to a corrected price of $762,400 15 years ago.
In Wagaman the difference is $228,500 or 31 per cent, while in Lyons it is $205,700 or 21 per cent.
In the unit market, the adjusted median price in Driver was 54 per cent higher in 2010 compared to 2025.
In Darwin City, the 2010 median unit price of $575,000 – equal to $797,100 today – dropped 52 per cent to a median of $380,000.
While in Larrakeyah, the drop from the adjusted 2010 prices was 48 per cent, from $686,200 to $360,000.
Darwin is the only capital where property prices are cheaper than what they were 15 years ago.
NEW SOUTH WALES
Hopeful Sydney homebuyers are paying substantially more money for properties relative to the cost of everything else than any recent generation before them, PropTrack data shows.
Current prices are four times higher than in 1980 once adjusted for inflation, with a typical house back then costing $65,000, the same as $338,000 in today’s money.
It’s a far sight from the $1.47 million Sydney houses are typically selling for in 2025.
Sydney’s $187,000 median house price in 1990 was equivalent to $447,300 in today’s money, while the $285,000 median in 2000 was worth $544,000 in 2025 dollars.
Even buyers who snapped up homes in 2010 paid significantly less than today in real terms. The average house back then cost $600,000, which would translate to about $874,300 once adjusted for inflation.
Malcolm and Georgia Clark, with their daughters, Sloane, 9, Elle, 6, at their home in Wareemba. Picture: Justin Lloyd.
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