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Before going to Australia Housing Crisis. Let’s understand Australia. The sixth largest country in the world in terms of area, which is currently a victim of a very big crisis. Although this country is counted among the richest countries of the world, where the salaries and standard of living are much higher than many developed countries of the world, this country is slowly getting caught in such a problem, which can become a big headache for it in the coming times. It is famous all over the world for its wildlife and beautiful coastline. There are many such species of pythons and snakes that are found only in Australia.
Anyway, I know Australia only because of its cricket team. Steve Warn, Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath, Andrew Symonds, Maxwell Glenn, for me, Australia was just these cricket players.
Australia is very famous in the world for one more thing, and that is its strange geography. Australia is the only country in the world, which is also a continent, completely disconnected from the rest of the world, located south of the Indian Ocean. If we look at the map of Australia, one thing that is very obvious is that about 90 percent of the area of Australia is covered by desert, and that is why 85 percent of the population of Australia lives on the coastline of Australia. So, if we look at it, about 85 to 90 percent of Australia is completely empty. 75 percent of the population of Australia lives in these three cities, Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, and all three cities are on the coastline of Australia.
History of Australia
To understand this population pattern of Australia, we have to go into history because Australia has remained unknown in the entire human history and it was discovered for the first time by a daachman named William James in 1606 when he was returning from Indonesia with trade goods and on the way, due to a sea storm, his ship landed in Timor leste and there he saw an island in the distance, which was Australia.
William went back and informed everyone about this island, and then in 1770, British explorer Captain James Cook set out on this journey with a few companions and stopped at Botany Bay on the eastern side of Australia. When he and his companions landed here, they had a fierce fight with the local people, and Captain Cook had to run away to save his life. Then, eight years later, Captain Arthur Philip came here with three hundred men on 11 ships and captured this coastline. After bringing this part under British control, he tried to discover the western side of Australia. But due to the hot desert weather and extreme thirst, many of his companions died, and he was forced to return.
Australia actually became famous in 1851 when huge reserves of gold were discovered in a village named Bathts, 210 kilometers away from Sydney. In the next 20 years, 40% of the world’s gold production started happening in Australia.
How australia housing crisis create?
Today, Australia is the friendliest country in the world, and in terms of quality of life, it is at number eight in the world. and that is why it is also a dream country for many people in South Asia, but Australia is getting caught in a trap. Australia has topped the list of least affordable countries in the world in the last few years. Three cities in Australia have been included in the list of the top 10 unaffordable cities. Sydney is the second most expensive city in the world after Hong Kong. Its housing market has a huge role in making the Australian housing Crisis.
In 1970, the average annual salary in Sydney was 4200 dollars, and the price of a house at that time was around 18700 dollars. By 2024, this average annual salary will have reached 74000, which means 17 times more than the salary of 1970. But on the other hand, today the price of an average house is 1500000.0 dollars, which is 80 times higher than the 1970 housing price. This means that now, even if you save your entire salary for the next 20 years, you will hardly be able to buy a house because in twenty years the price of the house will have gone up even more. And this is not just the case in Sydney, but the situation is the same in all major Australian cities. In Australia, people who are earning even 1 L dollars can afford only 13% of the houses, and even for these 13% houses, they have to take a very high mortgage. And that is why Australian households have 1 of the largest debts in the world, and this situation is getting worse because every year, 4 lakh people are being added to the Australian population.
Australia’s population growth is almost double that of Canada and the USA. The biggest reason for this population growth is immigration. Every year, thousands of people from China and South Asia come to Australia. Some of these people become Australian nationals after years, but many people are not able to get nationality even after spending lakhs of rupees on degree and they keep extending their visa by doing odd jobs and taking admission in different small colleges, with the hope that someday their points will be completed and they will get PR.
But to accommodate so many immigrants, the supply of houses is much less than the demand, and due to this difference in supply and demand, the price of houses in Australia is on fire, because 90 percent of Australians live in these four cities. There is a whole empty land, but it is not suitable for growing anything or living there. That is why only these three or four cities are left for this increasing population. Now, because all the jobs are also in these cities, immigrants and students also come to these cities. Now Australia has an option to impose restrictions on immigration, but doing so will have a very bad effect on Australia’s economy, because almost 17 percent of Australia’s economy runs due to foreign students.
These are the students who come to Australia to study so that after completing their education, they can get a job and get PR. The fees of universities in Australia are very high, and these fees for students coming from India, Pakistan, and China give a big boost to the country’s economy. Secondly, Australia’s population is not enough to fulfill the industry requirement, which is why it needs labor from outside, but such labor that can speak English well and has relevant skills. In such a situation, Australia cannot reduce immigration. Australia has already made its policies very strict so that only qualified people can be given PR to fight the Australian housing crisis.
In such a situation, when lakhs of people come to Australia every year, it will become very difficult to arrange for their accommodation. Australia is now working on such plans, through which water will be brought to this desert by building dams and crops will be grown here.
But it will take many years to execute this plan, and till then, Australia will have to build houses for the immigrants coming to the cities on this coastline. And till then, the immigrants will have to tolerate high rents and high housing prices. Australia is truly an example of right planning. A country that was settled only two hundred years ago is today among the top economies of the world. Let’s see how Australia is dealing with this housing crisis.
