Houses in Australia Only Cost 6,556 Percent More Than in the 60s!

New research into global housing prices, released this week, shows that Australia has experienced one of the longest housing booms in the world. The report, from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), found house prices in Australia have been on the upswing since 1961.

And, unlike other advanced economies, we've haven't had a single downswing during this period.

From 1961 through to today, Australia's median house price rose a whopping 6,556 percent—which averages out to a jump of around eight percent every year. This means property prices have grown much faster than the cost of other goods, which has trailed around 5.3 percent a year since the 1960s.

As the report notes though, most of this house price spike has happened since 2007. While the rest of the world was reeling from the US housing bubble bursting—and the ensuing Global Financial Crisis—the Australian property market continued to heat up. As ANU economist Ben Phillips has noted, Sydney's average housing price has jumped 70 percent in the past five years alone.

A fair question here would be, who is buying these expensive houses? Because over the past 20 years or so, wages in Australia basically haven't gone up.

Well, according to economists, most of the property boom is largely being driven by investors in Sydney and Melbourne. Earlier this year, Sydney's median property price hit $1.15 million, while Melbourne has topped $800,000.

So are we talking baby boomers with multiple negatively geared investment properties who are renting them out to twentysomethings at exorbitant prices and ignoring their emails about removing the black mould spreading across the bathroom ceiling? Perhaps.