How property prices and income levels have changed over time in Australia
By Chaice Paterson, founder of Low Deposit Homes · Published 5 March 2026
Understanding the vastly different property market conditions of today compared to just 23 years ago requires knowledge of current grants and financial utilisation.
Full transcript
So this actually happened to me when I was younger. Sitting down with a family member, a parent, gave me the story that they bought a house there in Sydney, put him in the 50s or 60s.
So I just asked the question, I was like, well, how much did the house cost? 26,000 dollars. How much income did you earn that year? And he said, 28,000 dollars. So back then, probably it was only about $500,000, but I didn't earn $500,000 dollars. And I'm sure a lot of people, most people don't earn $800,000 dollars a year.
So there's a big difference on what things were like back in the past to now. So you have to understand keeping up with the times, looking at the grants, how to best utilise the finances is just very, very different to what it was 23 years ago.