Baby boomers had it much easier than the more youthful generations purchasing a house - regardless of having to pay exorbitantly high interest rates.

The generation born after the war were hit with huge 18 percent rate of interest back in the late 1980s.

Those repayments were crippling, when they were maturing in the seventies and eighties, however houses were significantly cheaper compared with common incomes.

That was likewise back when Australia's population was practically half of what it is today, long before annual immigration levels soared.

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

With an $80,000 mortgage, he was obtaining little more than double his pay before tax and strikes out at any idea his boomer generation did it harder - regardless of the high interest rates he paid.

'I paid eighteen-and-a-half per cent for a few of that however my first home cost $105,000 and it took me less than three years to save up the deposit,' he informed Daily Mail Australia.

'Although rate of interest are less than half what I was paying, it was nowhere near as tough as now and I didn't have HECS debt to pay off since I belonged to that lucky generation when it was complimentary.

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

'My generation had it pretty easy - we got free education, we got housing extremely inexpensively and we have made a motza out of the increase in house costs that we have chosen.'

In 1980, Sydney's mid-point priced house expense $65,000, or simply 4.5 times the average, full-time male wage in an age when a woman would have a hard time to get a mortgage without a signature from her husband.

Real estate data group PropTrack approximated Sydney's mean home would cost $338,000 today, or just 4.3 times the typical income now for all Australian workers, if house costs had actually increased at the very same rate as earnings during the past 45 years.

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

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

AMP deputy chief economic expert Diana Mousina, a Millennial, stated the younger generations were having a harder time now conserving up for 20 per cent mortgage deposit just to buy a home.

'The problem now is simply entering the market - that's what takes the bigger piece of attempting to conserve; it takes 11 years to save,' she stated.

Realty information group PropTrack approximated Sydney's mean house would cost $338,000 today, or just 4.3 times the typical wage now for all Australian employees, if home costs had actually increased at the exact same speed as incomes during the past 45 years

Boomers coped sky high interest rates in the 80s - they haven't been that high given that - but they had it easier because home prices were far more inexpensive

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Melbourne's mid-point home rate cost simply $40,000 in 1980 or 2.8 times the typical male salary.

If cost had stayed consistent, a normal Melbourne would now cost simply $205,400.

But the Victorian capital's average home price of $850,000 is now 10.8 times the average wage for all employees.

Brisbane's average home rate expense $32,750 in 1980 or just 2.2 times what a typical man earned.

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

Queensland capital houses now cost $910,000 or 11.6 times the typical wage.

The major banks are not likely to provide somebody more than 5 times their pay before tax, which suggests many couples would now struggle to get a loan for a capital city house unless they relocated to a far, outer suburb and had a huge deposit.

Housing cost degraded following the introduction of the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount rate in 1999, just before annual immigration levels tripled throughout the 2000s.

'Since about 2000, you have actually seen home rates relative to incomes increase at a significant amount - it's been the reality that we have actually been running high levels of population growth - so migration, so more demand for housing,' Ms Mousina said.

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 wage when he was 26, after benefiting from totally free university education

'We have actually been running high migration targets, at the same time we have not been building sufficient homes across the nation.

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

Mr Eslake stated politicians from both sides of politics desired home costs to increase, since more voters were homeowner than occupants attempting to get into the market.

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

'Even if you presume that for everybody who succeeds, in becoming a first home buyer, there are 5 or six who would like to but can't - that's at most around 750,000 votes for policies that would restrain the rate at which house costs increase.

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

'Even the dumbest of our politicians - as the Americans state, "Do that math" which is why at every election, political leaders on both sides of the divide - while bewailing the difficulties dealt with by first-home buyers - promise and carry out policies that make it even worse because they understand that a huge majority of the Australian population do not want the problem to be solved.'

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

PropTrack estimated Sydney's median house would cost $338,000 today, or just 4.3 times the typical income now for all Australian workers, if house rates 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 typical Sydney house cost $187,500 or $447,300 now if cost had remained constant.

A years later on 2000, soon after the introduction of the 50 percent capital gains tax discount, a normal Sydney house cost $284,950.

That would translate into $544,000 today if price had remained continuous.

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

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

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

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

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

When it concerned the stereotype of young individuals wasting their money on smashed avocado breakfasts instead of conserving for a home deposit, Mr Eslake had a basic answer to that.

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

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