- Alan Kohler made sad admission about owning a house
- He said dream of owning property with backyard ‘might be over’
Alan Kohler has admitted the Australian dream of owning a home with a backyard ‘might be’ over for aspiring homeowners.
The ABC finance expert made the bleak admission on Q+A on Monday night.
A young man named Samuel asked if the ‘Australian dream of owning a house with a backyard in a city (is) over for all of my generation?’
Mr Kohler simply replied: ‘It might be’.
‘The backyard has become really expensive, particularly close to the city,’ he said.
‘I think we’re in the situation now where if you want a backyard, you’re going to have to move a fair way away from the city.’
Housing and Homelessness minister Clare O’Neil noted Mr Kohler made a ‘good point’, but emphasised the government is ‘trying to do everything (they) can’ for young people.
‘Maybe if you want more space, you’re going to have to move further away from the city, but what we really need is lots of options for young people like yourself,’ she said.
ABC finance expert Alan Kohler made the bleak admission that the dream of owning a home with a backyard in Australia ‘may be over’
‘And right now you don’t have enough, our government is trying to do everything we can to create more.’
Shadow minister Michael Sukkar said the Coalition doesn’t see the ‘backyard as being dead’, but agreed people may need to move further out for the ‘traditional 800 square metre block’.
‘If you look at Australia’s housing market right now, the cheapest form of housing is detached housing,’ Mr Sukkar said.
‘It’s the province of first home buyers because the construction costs aren’t what they are elsewhere.
‘So I would say we at the Coalition, no one would see the backyard as being dead, but the truth is it may not be in those absolutely inner-city suburbs as it’s been in the past.’
In April it was revealed house prices in Australia’s capital cities had surged by up to 20 per cent in the past year.
Property values were at record levels in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane, while Sydney was only 1.4 per cent below its peak two years ago.
Perth led the price surge, with median house prices going up by almost $142,000 to $735,276, but all capital cities except Darwin and Hobart saw significant price rises.
Brisbanes had an annual price growth of 15.9 per cent, taking the median price to $909,988.
A young man named Samuel asked if the ‘Australian dream of owning a house with a backyard in a city (is) over for all of my generation?’ (stock image)
Prices climbed by $137,968 over the year and by $10,514 in a month in a city with a 3.1 per cent population growth pace.
Sydney saw its median house price soar by 10.7 per cent over the year to $1,414,229 – up $183,648 year on year, including a surge of $18,425 in a month.
Despite the hike, home prices in Australia’s most populated city were still 1.4 per cent below their January 2022 peak.