are australian properties overpriced?

I am an Australian who moved to Italy 2 years ago and have been astonished at how low property prices are compared to Australia (this is all of Europe, not just Italy). You can buy a nice 2 bedroom house near the seashore (Genoa area) for around €150,000. In the beautiful countryside of Rumania near the ski slopes where tourists go you can get a run down house on an acre of property for only €12,000. I know the Rumanian countryside isn't my first pick but €12,000 is nothing, it won't even buy you a new car in Australia!!! Nice houses in the USA (I remember Kansas was the cheapest in USA) are going for around US$40,000.

I am not a property guru but I know people in Australia are always "she'll be right" attitude but it doesn't make sense to me that Australia has a low population and huge amounts of land (even though most is uninhabitable it is still several times more than Italy or other Euro countries) and the property is several times more expensive than most other places in the world. I know people that are looking for a place close to the Melbourne CBD and couldn't believe a dingy studio was $450,000 , that could buy you a villa in France and another house in Italy!!!

Anyway, I was thinking that negative gearing was to blame for the sky rocketing prices (even though property price have decreases in Australia recently) as I don't think most of the world has adopted this finanial facility? Is Australian property in a massive bubble? I hope its not as I have family and friends relying on their property to pay off but ever since moving it has been a wake up call to what international property prices are.