Home hunters in Sydney and Melbourne can still find quality bargains near the city for less than $600,000.
Record-low interest rates have fuelled a property price boom pushing median house prices in Sydney above $1.1million for the first time ever.
The surge in property prices is so dramatic the Reserve Bank of Australia is worried about low-income people, including the young, missing out following the end of JobKeeper wage subsidies. If housing prices continue to rise as the end of stimulus payments slows household income growth, this will present renewed challenges for housing affordability for lower-income households, it said on Friday.