Sydney / Melbourne land values bust

On Friday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released its 2018-19 Australian System of National Accounts (ASNA) data release, which provides a detailed presentation of annual national accounts data.

Locked away on Table 61 is my favourite section of the release: data on aggregate land values at the state and national levels. This year’s release confirmed that, at a national level, the land values underpinning the Australian housing bubble deflated significantly when measured against GDP, lead by Victoria (Melbourne) and New South Wales (Sydney).

The below chart summarises Australia’s aggregate land values by use relative to Australia’s gross domestic product (GDP) since 1989, which is as far back as the data goes:

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.