Australia is generally ridiculously expensive, that is true, but there is usually a reason (not necessarily a good one) why "local markets in Australia are just weird."
> I remember seeing real estate listing for some really remote housing in some dying gold town somewhere.
Without further details, I can't say whether your assessment of "dying" is correct or not, but it is true that towns that have mining operations experience explosive growth (and contractions) in housing prices. Local governments in general don't want to allow a lot more house building, because in 5, 10 or 20 years time when the mine closes down, having all those empty houses causes a ghost town effect where the town really will die (the towns almost always existed before the mines, and they want them to exist after the mine leaves too). That means people pay north of $1 million dollars for a fibro shack. Mining companies will hire the local showgrounds long term, so that they can build a tent city for their workers (who use the showground toilet and shower facilities etc). Local house prices will fluctuate by hundreds of thousands of dollars in days, based upon financial news from the mining companies about whether they are liking to build/expand/close the local mining operation.
Yes, it's weird.
As for Sydney specifically, it is actually very space constrained. With the ocean on one side, and the Blue Mountains on the other side, there actually isn't a lot of room for expansion.
You are correct that in general there is a lot of undeveloped coast line though (inland is basically inhospitable). It's just not where the jobs are.
> Without further details, I can't say whether your assessment of "dying" is correct or not, but it is true that towns that have mining operations experience explosive growth (and contractions) in housing prices.
I honestly don't know. I was with a couple of locals and remember seeing the advertisement and remarking at how expensive the housing was. This was 7+ years ago but I remember they said something about it being a dead mining town turned into a prospector town. Folks looking to hit it big finding an unknown vein somewhere.
I've worked with more Aussies and we've had lots of discussions about the particularly weird housing market there, with of course lots of segues into the weird Bay Area housing market by way of comparison.
As for Sydney specifically, it is actually very space constrained. With the ocean on one side, and the Blue Mountains on the other side, there actually isn't a lot of room for expansion.
Melbourne has vast swathes of open land in all directions, and housing prices are nearly the same.
I asked the question to a friend, and he replied that I just don't get it: the people who already have houses aren't interested in reducing the value of them. Almost all federal politicians have multiple properties. Why would they legislate to do that? So we have negative gearing that will never get solved, lots of foreign purchasing driving up prices, and no-one willing to pull the pin out of the electoral grenade and start dealing with our housing bubble.
While Melbourne doesn't have any shortage of land to build out into it is getting very far away from the inner city.
As long as you are happy to drive everywhere and can find a suburban job or are prepared to make long commutes there is plenty of relatively cheap housing to be had.
> I remember seeing real estate listing for some really remote housing in some dying gold town somewhere.
Without further details, I can't say whether your assessment of "dying" is correct or not, but it is true that towns that have mining operations experience explosive growth (and contractions) in housing prices. Local governments in general don't want to allow a lot more house building, because in 5, 10 or 20 years time when the mine closes down, having all those empty houses causes a ghost town effect where the town really will die (the towns almost always existed before the mines, and they want them to exist after the mine leaves too). That means people pay north of $1 million dollars for a fibro shack. Mining companies will hire the local showgrounds long term, so that they can build a tent city for their workers (who use the showground toilet and shower facilities etc). Local house prices will fluctuate by hundreds of thousands of dollars in days, based upon financial news from the mining companies about whether they are liking to build/expand/close the local mining operation.
Yes, it's weird.
As for Sydney specifically, it is actually very space constrained. With the ocean on one side, and the Blue Mountains on the other side, there actually isn't a lot of room for expansion.
You are correct that in general there is a lot of undeveloped coast line though (inland is basically inhospitable). It's just not where the jobs are.