A popular YouTuber has provided a simple reason why Australia’s housing crisis has spiraled out of control, despite the country’s sheer size offering plenty of space to build.
Dominik Presl, who lives in the United Kingdom, said in the video shared this month that Australia is a rich and vast country with some of the highest wages in the world “so it should have abundant and affordable housing.”
But he went on to explain that the traditional ‘Australian dream’ of owning a home could be the reason the property market is in such a poor state, with Australians unwilling to compromise despite the shift to a modern, fast growing country.
“Australia is one of the emptiest countries in the world, with only 3.38 inhabitants per square kilometre,” Presl said.
‘Logic would dictate, given the high wages and vast amounts of land, that housing would not be a problem, but in reality the opposite is the case and the country has some of the least affordable housing anywhere.’
YouTuber Explained with Dom has said the ‘Australian dream’ of owning a home is at odds with the reality of modern Australia
Sydney was listed as the second most unaffordable city in the world after Hong Kong in a recent International Housing Affordability survey by Demographia.
“The housing problem is going nowhere because Australia has locked itself in a trap of its own making,” Presl said.
‘The Great American Dream is about reaching the top with nothing but hard work, but since the 1950s, owning a home has been central to the Great Australian Dream. It is a sign of stability and prosperity.’
The Youtuber explained in 1970 that the average annual wage in Australia was $4,200 and the average house price in Sydney was $18,700.
By 2023, the average salary grew to $74,000, or seventeen times what it was then, but the average house price in Sydney rose to eighty times as much as $1.5 million.
“Buying a home is becoming increasingly impossible for most Australians and the reasons for the housing crisis are simple.
‘It is based on supply and demand.
‘Almost 90 percent of Australia’s population is concentrated in cities, with 72 percent in major cities and 40 percent in Sydney and Melbourne alone.
‘Although Australia has a lot of land, almost everyone wants to live in the same place where the supply of land is limited.’
Nearly 90 percent of Australia’s population is concentrated in cities, with 40 percent in Sydney and Melbourne alone, he explained.
He then pointed out that if everyone concentrates in cities, there should be a push to build high-density residential areas.
“But this isn’t what’s happening: cities are opting for single-family homes and you just can’t build enough of them to house everyone.
‘Melbourne is already six times the size of London and has only half the population.
‘So supply is low, but demand is high due to factors such as a growing population and tax breaks that encourage real estate investments.
“Australia has averaged around 400,000 immigrants per year over the past decade, which is twice as many as Canada and the US.
“Immigration is how countries get rich, but if you want more people, a country has to be able to house them and Australia is failing at that.”
He said Australia is failing to accommodate the immigrants the country is bringing into the country
He highlighted how Australia’s population is expected to grow to 44,000,000 by 2067
Dom claimed Australia cannot significantly reduce immigration because its economy depends on it as a workforce and for the money it brings in through international student fees, for example.
“The only option left is to build more housing in the cities where everyone wants to live, which means building high-density housing and fewer single-family homes.
‘The problem is that Australians don’t want this.
“The Australian dream of everyone owning their own home is still alive and well, which means housing will only become more expensive for everyone.”
The YouTuber claimed to solve Australia’s housing problem. Cities should build high-density residential areas instead of single-family homes, but ‘Australians don’t want this’