IMF Staff Country Reports

Australia: Selected Issues

Publication Date:

September 30, 2015

Electronic Access:

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Summary:

This Selected Issues paper analyzes the housing prices in Australia. Housing prices in Australia have increased strongly over the past two decades, including by comparison internationally. Thus housing prices are often argued to be overvalued. Many counter-arguments have been put forward for why such measures are flawed. This paper argues that housing prices are moderately stronger than consistent with current economic fundamentals, but less than a comparison to historical or international averages would suggest. International comparisons of price-to-income ratios suggest that Australia is broadly in line with comparator countries, although significant data comparability issues make inference difficult.

Series:

Country Report No. 2015/275

Subject:

Housing Housing prices National accounts Prices Production Productivity Taxes Total factor productivity Value-added tax