Housing market These income gains have accelerated over the past two years, at a time when the dynamics of the Australian housing market have changed. From 1996 to 2003, Australian households borrowed at a rapid pace for the purposes of owning dwellings, either to occupy or to let out.
The median price of dwellings in Australia rose in parallel, by 120 to 150 per cent, depending on the price measure used.3 The peak in prices nationally was about two years ago now, in the last quarter of 2003.