1983 vs 2023: Truth of Australia’s housing crisis exposed
Australian filmmaker Jack Toohey has painted a bleak picture of the reality of the nation’s housing crisis, with four decades of comparison to back up his case.
As Toohey himself proclaims in the caption to his video, the “market is broken”, and there’s far more to the story than older Aussies - many of whom believe earlier generations had it much harder in life - might expect.
To begin, Toohey throws himself “back in time to 1983 to buy a house”, where he goes on to explain that he’s only “an average person looking to buy an average house”.
According to Toohey, the average cost of a house in 1983 was $64,039, while the average annual income was $19,188, and an average university degree cost nothing. Average taxes and rents were $4,377 and $2,494, and the average disposable income for Aussies was $12,315.
And for anyone who managed to save 50% of what was left of their income to put towards a mortgage, they could expect to have enough in their account within two years to put towards a 20% deposit.
“Remember that as we head back to 2023,” Toohey said, “and I’m still an average person looking to buy an average house.”
It was then that things took a turn for the worst, with Toohey sharing just how much things had changed over the course of 40 years.
In comparison to 1983, Australians in 2023 could expect to have to fork out - on average - $920,100 for a home. And their savings were set to take a bigger hit, too, with the cost of a degree rising from the low price of “free” to an average HECS debt of $23,685, and wages at an annual average of $90,896.
Taxes and rent had taken a hit, too, coming in at $20,008 and $28,600 - with the added problem of $5,453 HECS repayments.
And the new average disposable income was $36,835, leaving hopeful Aussies with $18,417 after their repayments and taxes, and 10 whole years before they could even consider putting down a house deposit.
As Toohey noted, it was no surprise that many were feeling the pressure, and that “clearly it’s not just lazy layabout young people sipping lattes, indulging, that’s the problem”. It would, he pointed out, take him 84 years to save up if he started skipping his one daily takeaway coffee.
To simplify, he explained that the average house price had increased by 14 times in four decades, while the average yearly salary had only increased by 4.7 times - information he stressed had been drawn from both the ABS and ATO.
“Houses used to cost three times your salary,” he said, “and now they cost 10 times.”
Images: TikTok