Home prices in Australia have been rising for years now, with many homebuyers being priced out of the market in places like Sydney and Melbourne where the average home price is $852,000 and $641,200 respectively. If demand continues to exceed supply as the populations of Aussie urban hotspots swell, experts predict that property will be virtually unaffordable in the future. If the next two decades see the same remarkable increases of the last 20 years, by 2037 it will cost $6 million to enter the market in both Sydney and Melbourne.

The Australian share market has continued higher in early trade, with local investors taking cues from overnight gains on Wall Street. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 0.5 per cent after the first half-hour of trade, with healthcare, energy and mining shares among the pick of the lot.