The biggest winners of the Australian property boom are the super-rich.
But for most Australians, it’s the middle class that is experiencing the biggest gain.
Photo: Peter Rae The latest survey of the nation’s wealthiest found that the median net worth of Australians increased from $2.9 million in 2016 to $5.6 million in 2019.
In other words, the median household is now worth $2 million more than it was just a year ago.
Photo by Mark Evans A further increase in the median was driven by the increase in net worth for super-wealthy Australians.
The median networth of super- wealthy Australians rose by $2,000, or 12 per cent, in the same period.
The median net-worth of households with annual incomes of $50,000 or less was $3.8 million, a jump of 13 per cent.
For the most part, super-income earners saw their net worth rise the most, up from $3 million in 2020 to $6.4 million in 2021.
While the median is a measure of the value of a home, the rise in the value for the super rich has also been driven by increases in the cost of housing.
A decade ago, Australia was home to around 1.5 million households with a median net value of $150,000.
Now, the housing market has been hit by a severe housing shortage.
Australia has a growing affordability crisis.
As housing prices continue to rise, the cost to buy a home has continued to soar.
In Melbourne, the average monthly mortgage payment is now $2123, compared to $1940 in 2020.
And in Sydney, the monthly mortgage payments are now $2318.
Despite rising rents, Sydney’s median household income fell by $20,000 to $78,000 in the year to March 2019, compared with a year earlier.
However, the gap between the richest and poorest Australians widened slightly to $11,000 last year, up by $1,400 from the previous year.
Of course, while the median increases by $25,000 a year for the richest Australians, the net income for the middle classes is expected to fall by $3,000 for the same time period.