All this talk of mortgage stress... it's true for some, but I recently travelled to the new outer-Western suburbs of Melbourne - Tarneit, Truganina, Manor Lakes etc. They're around 25-30km from the CBD, and one can buy a freehold, new 4/2/2 house for the low to mid 600's, and a 3/2/2 for mid 500's. There are shops, hospitals, road and rail links to the CBD and the area seems nicely streetscaped. I think Australia's "housing crisis" is nothing more than a crisis of expectations - many people can't afford a 5 bedroom house on a quarter acre block 5km from the CBD so they prefer to lament rather than look outside the box.
