Doctor Kate Gregorevic’s theory on why a unique feature of our homes is the reason for Australia’s housing crisis divides the internet

A high-profile doctor and author has divided opinion by suggesting Australia has a housing affordability crisis because our homes are the largest in the world.

Dr Kate Gregorevic published a colour-coded map on X and suggested Australian homes were unaffordable because they rivaled American homes in size.

‘To what extent is the housing crisis in Australia due to the fact that we have the largest average home size in the world? “People expect a big house, which means they are expensive and require a lot of space to build,” he said.

Dr Gregorevic, a specialist in geriatric medicine and best-selling author of books on living longer and dementia, suggested Australians opt for apartment living.

“Apartments along with many parks and public spaces mean that people live much more within their community,” he said.

His opinion upset some of his followers, and one man instead suggested that high immigration was to blame for unaffordable housing.

“To what extent is it due to the fact that immigration exceeds the supply of housing?”

Another man was even more scathing.

‘Nice try Doc, might I suggest staying in your lane? It’s immigration and demand that far outweighs supply… WHAT’S NEXT,” he said.

But Dr. Gregorevic also had her supporters.

‘As an American living in Melbourne. “I feel like Australians want homes the size of Texans with the culture and amenities of Europeans,” she stated.

A record 518,000 people moved to Australia during the last financial year, with more of the overseas newcomers moving to Sydney and Melbourne as more locals moved to south-east Queensland.

The net annual pace of overseas immigration slowed to 447,790 at the end of last year.

But in 2023, only 162,194 houses and apartments were approved for development, the Australian Bureau of Statistics figure showed.

With the average Australian household having 2.5 people at the 2021 census, this meant new homes would typically house 405,485 people, leaving 42,305 without a place to live.

And that’s based on all the houses being finished soon, which would be unlikely.

This means many more people are struggling to find a place to live, as capital cities had a very tight vacancy rate of 1.1 percent in January, SQM Research data showed.

Sydney’s median house price, at $1.395 million, is also the second most expensive in the world, after Hong Kong, according to a Demographia study of median prices compared to median household income.

But the apartments are not affordable, with the city having a median apartment price of $828,525, CoreLogic data showed.

This would be out of reach for someone earning an average full-time salary of $98,218, based on November pay before bonuses and overtime.

To embrace apartment living in Sydney, as Dr Gregorevic suggests, someone with a 20 per cent deposit would still need to borrow $662,820, a notch above the national average mortgage of $624,383.

To avoid mortgage stress, when someone owes the bank more than six times their salary, a single borrower would need to earn $110,470, unless they bought something smaller and cheaper in an outer suburb.

When it comes to average home sizes, a 2020 CommSec study showed the average new home in Australia in the 2019-2020 financial year was 235.8 square meters, compared to 233.1 square meters (or 2,509 square feet) of the average new home in the United States.

That was before the Covid pandemic led to remote working and the expansion of the house to accommodate a home office.