Why Living In Australia Is Impossible

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If you haven't grown up in Australia it's very hard to understand the country's obsession with investing in property. It's like a national sport over here.

Australia and Canada two commonwealth countries who are plagued by ineffective governments, and some of the world’s worst affordability crises ever

The sad thing is everyone knows but nobody's going to do anything about it, because the people in charge are exactly the same people benefitting the most.

There's a common saying here in Australia. "It's easier to buy your second and third property than your first." Which says a lot.

The scary thing is that when you finally buy your dream house which cost you a fortune, you finally realise that it’s poorly built and sinks and there’s nothing you can do because in the meantime the builder has gone bust

The system is not broken it's working exactly as intended. Politicians and their mates are richer than ever.

I'm a Japanese. Our family visited Gold Coast in 2000. During the travel, we stayed at my sister's, who lived there as an international student. Her house had 3 bedrooms and she said the rental cost was only 730AUD/month. I thought, 'How affordable the housing cost is in Australia compared to in Japan, probably it's because of its vast land' That trip was so amazing and has stayed one of the most precious memories in my life. Today, Japan is well known as a country which has one of the most affordable housing cost in OECD. I couldn't imagine this at that time.

I have been living in Australia for just one year for a Master’s program and will return to Germany in 2 months. Therefore, I only had a one-year lease in North Melbourne. If I had stayed, the landlord offered me an extension of the lease at 15% more than I had paid before. Even though I was here for such a short time, I felt the fundamental change in the property market. If I had come just one year later, I probably wouldn’t have been able to afford the Master’s. Australians are such friendly, honest, and hard-working people that Germans could take a leaf out of their book. It hurts that politicians so often forget our young Australian friends. I sincerely wish them all the best.

As someone who lives in Australia, the housing crisis is out of control, rents have gone up, bulk billed doctors are a rarity now. It seems like a lot of the public services has decreased in quality. Many people now are moving out of the major cities to live in regional towns for a simpler and more affordable lifestyle.

I’m a software engineer I earn 140k. I used to want a house and family in Australia. Now I’m planning how I can find a new country to live in. This place is an economic black hole. Politicians will never solve it.

I moved to Australia a few years, its really shocking to see a country this size with a very little population suffering of a housing crisis. I feel sorry for the younger generations being deprived from owing a home because of some greedy politicians and rich people are writing the laws in their favour.

I used to live in this 2 bed 2 bathroom townhouse in the heart of Wollongong in 2020 and paid less than 450 a week for the place. I moved out in 2021 and now I've found out the same place is being leased out for 700 a week. The system is broken beyond repair.

Aussie here - the biggest issue without a doubt is the tax incentives. A really simple solution is to allow negative gearing on 1 house - that way, mum and dad investment properties are not affected, but those owning 20, 50, 300 houses are not able to snatch up everything available! Currently an investment group can just write off squillians in tax by purchasing more and more properties. In the last census - 10% of all homes in Australia were vacant, tax that shit. We shouldn’t allow people to buy a house and just sit there without having people in it - having a place to live should be a right, not an investment.

As someone living in Sydney. These are the things i realise. 1. House prices and cost of living is insane and salary will never catch up 2. Taxation system here are meant to never make you rich

I'm Australian, and last year I had to leave my rental apartment in Melbourne. Rent prices soared from around $420 per week in 2020 to $650-$700 per week for a similar two-bedroom apartment by 2023. As a teacher, I was forced to move when the owner sold the property, facing skyrocketing rents with no available options. The situation became so dire that I had to return to my hometown of Perth (after living in Melbourne for 20 years), relying on my cousin's kindness for shelter. I'm still here, where rentals start at $550 per week, and any decent apartment costs between $650 and $800 per week. I had to give away thousands of dollars' worth of furniture in Melbourne and leave my friends behind, completely uprooting my life. This greedy, appalling housing crisis has turned my world upside down, and now I have to start over as a mature aged man.

I'm disabled and currently unable to work. You got no idea how hard just keeping a roof over my head is. Last I calculated it, rent is around 65-70% of my government allowance alone. This leaves me with 30% of my pay to spend on utilities and food. You can probably guess that this isn't enough. I am forced to choose between bills and food, and as bills continue to rise its leaving me with less and less food. There are weeks where I have eaten only rice and buttered toast and still been unable to pay all my bills. I've received countless eviction warnings and I'm currently 6 days behind on rent, then I also have to get the car fixed up ($$$) for registration renewal ($$), a license renewal ($), and my rent is increasing by $50 a week, all by next month. I've been told to move somewhere cheaper, but I can't even afford that! Nevermind a down payment, I can't afford a rental truck to move furniture, because at the end of the week my savings are negative (not that I had any savings to begin with). Living here is impossible, and it's impossible to leave as well.

One of the main issues is that politicians still consider high house prices as a sign of a 'great market' despite the fact that it means people can't own their own home.

I had an old fella tell me he bought his first house at my age, (I am 21). Said I just needed to work harder. I am a bartender 40 hours a week, I also study at university. And I barely, barely make enough to rent. It's so ridiculous how hard the world, especially Australia has become to live in.

As a country which gives almost zero importance to education, innovation and merit, this is bound to happen. Just a matter of time. Feels sorry for the new generations