Australians have been left divided after old newspaper adverts resurfaced showing incredibly low property prices in upmarket suburbs.
Vintage 1980s and 1990s adverts from a local North Sydney newspaper were posted on the Humans of Eastwood Facebook page with the cheeky caption: “Back when you could buy the whole street.”
The ads showed several homes, including a property in Ryde listed for $57,950 in 1985 and a townhouse in Marsfield for $159,000 in 1992.
Ryde councillor Justin Li’s post sparked an angry reaction from one woman, who referred to the 18 per cent interest rates of the late 1980s.
“Wow, how naive. The payments were high. The salaries were low. The interest rates were high,” he said.
“It has never been easy for the average person to buy property.”
But a younger man pointed out that homes, relative to income, were much cheaper during the 1980s, even when variable mortgage rates were at punitive levels.
“People need to consider the relationship between wages and housing prices,” he said.
Old newspaper ads advertising homes in upmarket suburbs have sparked a heated debate on social media (pictured is an ad from 1985)
By 2024, the median house price in North Ryde will be $2.358 million or 19 times the median full-time wage.
“Back then it was more feasible even with children, despite the high interest rates. Nowadays, it is almost impossible for salaries to match the price of housing, especially in Sydney.”
A 1985 advertisement for Raine and Horne in the Northern District Times offered a four-bedroom house in North Ryde for $111,950 and a house in Putney, near the Parramatta River, for $129,000.
Four decades ago, a home in North Ryde cost just 4.3 times the average salary of $20,649 with a 20 per cent deposit, compared with five times in Putney, an exclusive coastal suburb.
In 2024, the median house price in North Ryde will be $2.358 million, or 19 times the median full-time wage, while in Putney it will be $3.43 million, or a whopping 27.9 times the typical wage.
A Professionals KG Hurst ad from 1992, shortly after a recession, listed a home in Beecroft for $285,000.
That would have cost 7.5 times the average salary of $30,519, when the median house price in Sydney was $140,280.
A Professionals KG Hurst ad from 1992, shortly after a recession, had a home in Beecroft for $285,000
The median home price in Beecroft is now $2.435 million, or 19.9 times the median full-time salary of $98,218.
Councillor Li said he expected things to get worse.
“It’s becoming increasingly difficult for young people to buy their first home due to rising property prices, interest rates and general cost of living expenses,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
Things are unlikely to get any easier in the future and tomorrow’s generation will probably say the same about today’s generation.
