Housing in Sydney won't become affordable until at least the 2030s

Housing affordability in Sydney is dire and buying a home is going to remain out of reach for much of the population until at least the 2030s.

That's according to a new study from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and University of Technology Sydney (UTS) which looks at the relationship between housing affordability and employment contracts.

It found that not only is the rising proportion of part-time workers completely priced out of the city's property market, but full-time earners are facing increasing financial hurdles standing in the way of home ownership.

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"While we expected the issue of housing affordability to be severe for part-time employment, we found that full-time employees are also significantly affected," said senior study author Professor Chyi Lin Lee, from the School of Built Environment at UNSW.

"This highlights the widespread housing affordability crisis and the need for comprehensive policy solutions."

Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that part-time workers are increasing, up from 20.6 per cent of the workforce in May 2020 to 23.6 per cent a year later.

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The researchers found that there was hardly a single area in Sydney where someone on the NSW weekly median part-time income could buy a home, even if they spent their entire salary on housing.

"As more part-time contracts are offered to working households, their earnings are impacted, affecting their chances of entering the housing market," Prof. Lee says. "This suggests that employment contract type is crucial for housing affordability analysis, which is somewhat overlooked in the existing literature."

The story wasn't much better for full-time earners; only apartments in some areas of Western Sydney were affordable for someone on the median income, while freestanding houses were unaffordable across the entire city.

"Households relying solely on their earnings will have limited chances of achieving homeownership," Lee said.

"So it's clear the Australian dream of owning a home is becoming increasingly harder to attain."

The study forecasted Sydney housing affordability until the end of 2031, and found housing will remain unaffordable throughout that entire period.

Lee said that requires an urgent injection of affordable properties into the market.

"The situation may also lead to housing-induced poverty, where households might forgo other essential activities to cover housing expenses," he said.

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"The government should consider doing more to address the supply side in the immediate term.

"By boosting the supply of affordable housing, the government can help alleviate the pressure on the housing market as a whole and improve affordability for aspiring homebuyers."

The federal government announced $3 billion in funding for social and affordable housing last year, and has set the ambitious target of building 1.2 million homes in five years, beginning at the start of this month.

However, the rate of dwellings approved for construction is currently far lower than what's required to hit that goal.

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