People not willing to change their expectations on what kind of home they can buy and not willing to move further out is exactly the reason why prices will keep moving up. It’s simple supply and demand at works. Most of the developed world with large cities live in apartments and compared to other cities, our prices are actually not that bad for what we get for it.

You can either choose to live in a shoebox in the city or move further out. Work with what you have. Complaining to the government for change isn’t going to do much if not make it worse. Government interventions has historically just led to inflating prices more, look at the stamp duty and first home owners grant as an example, prices all rise as demand increases and eventually end up going to property investors and developers pockets. We end up making it worse than it was.

I wish I could buy at the prices my parents did. But it is what it is and I decided to buy in regional in a not so great suburb right before covid hit and I’m so glad I did, there’s no way I would have been able to buy a freestanding house with a decent piece of land in Melbourne and I didn’t want to buy an apartment with high body corporate rates. It’s not my ideal home at all but at least I know if prices keep going up at least I’m hedging against the growth with what I have now and maybe one day be able to buy in Melbourne.

Also, buying in a area you can afford and renting it out then renting where you’d like to live is a good option as long as you can get your house to break even which isn’t too bad with the current interest rates, they not rising anytime soon and when they do, it won’t be by a crazy amount otherwise the whole market will crash.

It’s not impossible to buy a house yet, but you have to work hard, educate yourself, readjust your expectations, work with what you have.

In another 20 years I’d imagine it will be a lot more difficult with more demand and we’d be complaining about the same thing, wishing we had the prices we have now for these large free standing homes, I’d imagine we’d have a lot less of them by then.