Baby boomers had it much simpler than the more youthful generations buying a house - despite needing to pay exorbitantly high interest rates.

The generation born after the war were hit with huge 18 per cent interest rates back in the late 1980s.

Those repayments were debilitating, when they were maturing in the seventies and eighties, however homes were significantly less expensive compared with common incomes.

That was likewise back when Australia's population was almost half of what it is today, long before yearly migration levels skyrocketed.

Baby boomer financial expert Saul Eslake bought his very first house in Melbourne's St Kilda East for $105,000 in 1984 on a $35,000 wage when he was 26, after gaining from free university education.

With an $80,000 mortgage, he was borrowing little more than double his pay before tax and hits out at any tip his boomer generation did it tougher - despite the high rate of interest he paid.

'I paid eighteen-and-a-half percent for some of that however my very first home cost $105,000 and it took me less than 3 years to conserve up the deposit,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'Even though rate of interest are less than half what I was paying, it was nowhere near as difficult as now and I didn't have HECS debt to pay off because I belonged to that lucky generation when it was totally free.

The generation born after the war were struck with huge 18 per cent rates of interest back in the late 1980s (pictured is Terrigal on the NSW Central Coast)

'My generation had it - we secured free education, we got housing really inexpensively and we have made a motza out of the boost in house rates that we have voted for.'

In 1980, Sydney's mid-point priced home cost $65,000, or simply 4.5 times the average, full-time male wage in an era when a female would struggle to get a mortgage without a signature from her partner.

Property information group PropTrack estimated Sydney's average home would cost $338,000 today, or simply 4.3 times the typical wage now for all Australian employees, if home rates had increased at the very same speed as wages during the past 45 years.

In 2025, Sydney's middle-priced home expenses $1.47 million or 14.3 times the average, full-time income of $103,000.

But that price-to-income ratio surges to 18.7 if it's based on the average income of $78,567 for all workers.

AMP deputy chief economist Diana Mousina, a Millennial, said the younger generations were having a tougher time now conserving up for 20 per cent mortgage deposit simply to purchase a home.

'The issue now is just entering the market - that's what takes the larger portion of trying to save; it takes 11 years to save,' she stated.

Real estate information group PropTrack approximated Sydney's median house would cost $338,000 today, or simply 4.3 times the typical salary now for all Australian workers, if house rates had actually increased at the exact same speed as wages throughout the past 45 years

Boomers coped sky high rates of interest in the 80s - they have not been that high considering that - however they had it easier since house costs were a lot more cost effective

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Melbourne's mid-point home price expense just $40,000 in 1980 or 2.8 times the typical male wage.

If cost had stayed constant, a normal Melbourne would now cost just $205,400.

But the Victorian capital's average house cost of $850,000 is now 10.8 times the typical wage for all workers.

Brisbane's mean home rate cost $32,750 in 1980 or simply 2.2 times what an average guy earned.

That would be $174,600 today if purchasing power hadn't altered.

Queensland capital homes now cost $910,000 or 11.6 times the typical salary.

The major banks are unlikely to lend somebody more than 5 times their pay before tax, which suggests many couples would now struggle to get a loan for a capital city home unless they moved to a far, external residential area and had a huge deposit.

Housing cost degraded following the introduction of the 50 percent capital gains tax discount in 1999, prior to yearly migration levels tripled throughout the 2000s.

'Since about 2000, you have actually seen home rates relative to earnings increase at a significant quantity - it's been the reality that we have actually been running high levels of population growth - so immigration, so more need for housing,' Ms Mousina stated.

Baby boomer financial expert Saul Eslake bought his very first house in Melbourne's East Kilda for $105,000 in 1984 on a $35,000 salary when he was 26, after benefiting from complimentary university education

'We have been running high migration targets, at the same time we have not been developing sufficient homes across the country.

'We do have pretty favourable financial investment concessions for housing, consisting of negative tailoring, capital gains tax concession.'

Mr Eslake stated politicians from both sides of politics desired home rates to increase, due to the fact that more citizens were resident than tenants trying to get into the marketplace.

'For all the crocodile tears the political leaders shed about the problems facing potential very first home buyers, they understand that in any given year, there's only 110,000 of them,' he said.

'Even if you assume that for everyone who prospers, in becoming a first home buyer, there are five or six who would like to however can't - that's at a lot of around 750,000 votes for policies that would limit the rate at which house rates go up.

'Whereas the politicians know that at any moment, there are at least 11million Australians who own their own home; there are 2.5 million Australians who own a minimum of one financial investment residential or commercial property.

'Even the dumbest of our political leaders - as the Americans say, "Do that mathematics" which is why at every election, politicians on both sides of the divide - while bewailing the difficulties faced by first-home purchasers - guarantee and carry out policies that make it even worse since they know that a huge majority of the Australian population do not want the problem to be resolved.'

Sydney was the first market to end up being seriously unaffordable as Australia's most pricey urban housing market.

PropTrack approximated Sydney's median house would cost $338,000 today, or just 4.3 times the typical wage now for all Australian workers, if home prices had increased at the very same pace as earnings during the previous 45 years (envisioned is an auction at Homebush in the city's west)

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In 1990, the common Sydney home cost $187,500 or $447,300 now if cost had actually remained consistent.

A decade later 2000, shortly after the introduction of the 50 percent capital gains tax discount rate, a common Sydney house cost $284,950.

That would equate into $544,000 today if price had actually remained consistent.

This would likewise be the point where a single, average-income earner might still get a loan at a stretch with a 20 per cent mortgage deposit.

By 2010, Sydney's average house cost $600,000 or 9 times the average, full-time wage, putting a home with a yard beyond the reach of an average-income earner purchasing on their own.

In addition, the housing cost crisis has actually gotten worse as Australia's population has climbed from 14.5 million in 1980 to 27.3 million now.

During the 2000s, annual net abroad migration doubled from 111,441 at the start of the years to 315,700 by 2008 when the mining boom was driving population development.

After Australia was closed during Covid, immigration skyrocketed to a new record high of 548,800 in 2023, leading to house rates climbing even as the Reserve Bank was installing interest rates.

When it came to the stereotype of youths losing their cash on smashed avocado breakfasts rather of saving for a house deposit, Mr Eslake had a basic answer to that.

'At least, an extremely noticeable rolling of the eyeballs,' he said.

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