Comparing house prices between the UK and Australia can be looked at in different ways.
One way is the simple median price in each country, and convert at the current exchange rate.
For the UK you could take figures for Greater London
- £419,091 Average house price based on 19,482 sales in April-June 2011.
and compare to figures for Greater Sydney
- A$620,000 Average house price based on 11,476 sales in Oct-Dec 2010.
The current Exchange rate is about 1.5 A$ to the £, so the result is:
UK: £419,091 = A$628,600
Australia = A$620,000
Very similar. BUT.. it is isn’t actually that straightforward.
You also need to compare the type of property.
In Greater Sydney, Australia, the majority of properties are actually detached houses.
Look at the median prices of the Greater London properties, by property type:
£724,568 Detached (A$1,086,800)
£426,620 Semi-detached (A$639,900)
£463,695 Terrace (A$695,500)
£358,201 Flat (A$537,300)
The greater number appear to be Semi Detached and Terraced Houses.
To some people that information may be very relevant when comparing prices.
When selling in the UK and buying in Australia, with no mortgage, the above comparison may be the best comparison.
However, for those who need to service a mortgage with an Australian income, the property price comparison is better calculated against wages.
- A Greater London average property at £419,091 = 840 weeks wages.
- A Greater Sydney average property at A$620,000 = 544 weeks wages.
Weeks wages = Average Adult full time national wage.
Obviously, this calculation is best done with your own actual wages, rather than averages.
I have just compared my own areas, both my current location in QLD, and my last address in SE England, (one of the three cheapest areas shown below) and came up with:
- Australia: 412 weeks wages
- UK: 353 weeks wages
The result is that my new location (all Detached houses) is about 17% more expensive than my previous UK location (using Semi Detached prices). However, I am very happy with that as I am much closer to both the beaches and the city, where I am now, and that is well worth the extra 17%.
Source of the above Figures:
- Property UK: bbc.co.uk
- Property Australia: abs.gov.au 6416.0 House Price Indexes
- Wages UK: www.statistics.gov.uk
- Wages Australia: abs.gov.au 6302.0 Average Weekly Earnings
Wage figures used:
Australia: Full-time adult total earnings from the ABS were A$1,341 pw. Estimated Median wage is about 85% of this at: $1,140 pw
UK: Results from the 2010 ASHE show that median weekly pay for full-time employees in the UK for April 2010 were £499.
More UK House prices are:
UK House Prices April to June 2011 Quarter
Greater London
£419,091 Average house price based on 19,482 sales in April-June 2011.
£724,568 Detached
£426,620 Semi-detached
£463,695 Terrace
£358,201 Flat
The Cheapest three Greater London areas are:
£232,895 Bexley 609 sales (£265,488 for Semi Detached)
£211,986 Newham 322 sales (£246,923 for Semi Detached)
£175,084 Barking and Dagenham 329 sales (£206,393 for Semi Detached)
South East England
£268,878 Average house price based on 36,117 sales in April-June 2011.
£434,451 Detached
£246,106 Semi-detached
£204,297 Terrace
£165,442 Flat
The cheapest three South East areas are:
£166,284 Medway 668 sales (£176,360 for Semi Detached)
£164,942 Portsmouth 537 sales (£195,528 for Semi Detached)
£159,385 Luton 353 sales (£166,589 for Semi Detached)