Aussie Real Estate Podcast
Booming Western Sydney Suburb | Sydney Median House Price Was $197,000 in 1995
18 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What factors have influenced the growth of Western Sydney suburbs?
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Hey, it's the Real Estate Breakfast on another Monday, which is dropped and D-Day for a lot of people back to work for the first time this year. That might be you. So good luck to grinding it out today. It is a Monday, January the 19th. Hope the weekend was a good one. Watched the new Rip movie last night with Ben.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, some very twisty turns that keeps this film moving along and how things have changed. A year ago, neither of these actors would have probably appeared on the Joe Rogan show, but there they were on Saturday talking all about their new movie,
probably in part because Joe Rogan has changed his leanings towards Trump, so much so that he is now criticising Trump over his actions of ICE, especially the woman that was shot at point-blank range in the face and killed. You know, America has elements to it at the moment that looks more like Russia with people being dragged off the street.
And Trump continues to want Greenland now tariffing different European countries. Yes, when he wants something, he goes after it pretty hard. Nobody can deny him that. Now, Australia's rental market is finally hitting a bit of a speed limit. After years of sharp rises, rents are starting to flatten in parts of the country as tenants simply run out of room to pay more.
And according to Domain, some capitals like Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth have seen war. rents stall, even though cities like Brisbane and Hobart are still edging higher. They say the market hasn't softened. It's just become far more fragmented, slower and driven by affordability ceilings rather than demand alone. Well, we are back into the summer series coming next into the time tunnel we go.
You're listening to the Summer Series on The Real Estate Podcast.
Isn't it nice to be talking about borrowing capacity at the other end of the spectrum? You know, for such a long period of time over the last few years, we've been sort of going backwards with how much people can borrow and it should be even more good news. Well, it's good news now, obviously, because they're talking to their Mortgage brokers, very happy that they can borrow more.
But come November, what a nice little springboard that is into Christmas with people getting busy to buy properties.
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Chapter 2: How have rental prices changed in Australia recently?
They're paying that? Gee, that's a lot.
Yeah, well, it's becoming more and more true, that statement. I guess we used to think it was a bit ridiculous to say you could get a house deposit together by avoiding coffee, but it's not sounding so ridiculous if it's $8 a coffee.
Australia's tax system gives owner-occupiers a rare privilege, and this is living in their homes rent-free while avoiding taxation on that benefit. And economists are arguing that this untaxed income from imputed rent creates inequality as renters and landlords face far stricter tax obligations. Now, I want you to tell us a little bit about this study that you have done, this report out.
Maybe first off, just explain to people what imputed rent is exactly.
Yes. Imputed rent is a rather abstract concept because there's no actual flow of money. But what it refers to is if you own your own home, you get housing services from that. Your house accommodates you. And what imputed rent is, is it's the value of those services. It's like if I was to rent that house instead of own it, how much would I have to pay in rent for that?
Yeah, and I can see how people might get a little bit confused with this because it is an abstract concept that you are talking about because imputed is estimated, but it is a real benefit that people receive. And that is the premise of buying a home in the first place is to get, as you say, those housing services that you're talking about if you live in it.
And of course, as well as that, the investment from buying it in the first place.
But as I said, it is very real. So it's in our national accounts. So the Australian Bureau of Statistics, when it produces the quarterly GDP figures and so forth, computer rent is in there as part of our income. So it certainly has legitimacy. It's not something that me and my co-author, Peter Siminski, have just sort of made up. It's a very real phenomenon and
And it is actually taxed in some other countries. I think Denmark's one. And in fact, in 1915 and 1916, for a little while there, even in Australia, we taxed it for a little while. Hard to believe they could do it over 100 years ago, but there you go, they did it. We were sort of saying, well, we weren't so much coming from a position of, oh, we need to go after home owners.
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Chapter 3: What is the significance of borrowing capacity in the current market?
I mean, Melbourne has been in decline and then it's sort of stabilised in recent times. There's been some growth in that market, some early shoots. In those sort of two markets, you get this sort of sense that, look, the market's about to take off and interest rates as they fall will only fuel that, you know.
So those markets have that buyer thinking of maybe I need to act now and sellers thinking maybe I need to hold off and wait. until prices rise. And then you've got other markets that have been hot in recent years, you know, Perth and Adelaide and Brisbane, for example, they're just fearful that prices will never slow down.
Although I have to say the price growth has definitely slowed down, certainly in Perth and Adelaide. I guess it depends where you are and whether you're a buyer or whether you're a seller as to what you think might happen and what you might do as a result of that.
Yeah, yesterday we were having a look back with Margaret Lomas over 30, 40 years with mortgages, etc. Something we didn't get on to talking about was the median house price back in 1995. I'm going to test your knowledge here because I reckon you'd probably do quite well with this. because it's probably going back 1995. Maybe that was around when you first bought your property.
Maybe it was later. But Sydney in 1995, house price, what do you reckon the median was in Sydney in 1995?
I'm totally taking a stab because this was before I got into real estate as a career, but I had bought my first property, I think in 1995. So it just shows my age there. I'm going to take a stab. I'm going to think it's in the 200 somewhere.
Yeah, I knew that you were going to get very close to that. 197 grand, 1995. That was the median house price. Melbourne, you want to take a stab at that?
Well, I know it's going to be less than Sydney, so I'm going to guess in the 160s.
Yeah, that was quite interesting. $85,000 for a house. No way. Wow. $85,000. Wow. Brisbane was $127,000. Take a stab at Adelaide.
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