00:00So about three years ago now my wife Mandy and I left Australia on a one-way
00:04ticket to Southeast Asia. We had just started working online and our plan was
00:09to make our online jobs full-time before we run out of money and we did it. And
00:15we've made plenty of videos on how we made money online and given our full
00:19story but something we haven't really elaborated on was why we left Australia
00:25in the first place. So in today's video I'm going to be giving you the real
00:31reason why we left Australia and why we may never go back.
00:46All right we might as well get straight to it. It's no secret that Australia is one
00:51of the most expensive places to live in the world. It's actually been ranked in
00:56the top 10 most expensive places to live in the world for like 10 years now.
01:00And although Australia does have some of the highest wages in the world it still
01:04doesn't match up with the increasing price of houses in Australia. In fact it's
01:08almost impossible for young people to buy a home in Australia in 2024 let alone
01:14rent a place. And that's especially if you're living in a major city like Sydney,
01:18Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Perth, Adelaide etc. As you can see by this graph
01:23here the median cost of homes in Australia has skyrocketed over the last 20 years.
01:29And when you compare that to the average wage increase well you don't have to be a
01:33genius to figure out that something just doesn't add up here. So speaking from our
01:37first-hand experience when we left Australia at the end of 2021 we were
01:41living in this beachside town called Byron Bay. I don't know if you've heard of it or
01:46not but it's this quiet surf town. Well actually I wouldn't say quiet. It's a
01:50surf town on the east coast of Australia that has like a hippie vibe to it and has
01:55recently just become like probably the most popular tourist destination in all
01:59of Australia and a lot of people have moved there from big cities. So Mandy, Bear and
02:05me were all living in a studio apartment. In fact it wasn't actually really a
02:10studio it was just some guy's garage that he put a kitchen and a bathroom in and
02:16turned it into a studio. So this thing was probably around 50 square meters tops. It
02:22was like a loft it had a set of stairs and it was all open plan. We shared a
02:28driveway and a yard with four other people two other couples and look to be
02:32honest we loved living there. The other people that lived there were amazing and
02:36we got to live in one of the coolest places in Australia. But we were paying
02:40two thousand dollars a month just to live there. If you compare that to where
02:44we're living here in Thailand we pay just over half of that per month. We have a
02:49three-bedroom house with our own carport, a rooftop terrace and a swimming pool and
02:54a backyard. We also have a gardener that comes twice a week and pool
02:58maintenance as well. And we're walking distance to pretty much everything here.
03:02We don't even need a car. And so you can see how expensive it can be to live in
03:06Australia and that was just for a rental. We honestly were thinking about buying a
03:11house when both of us were working full-time back in Australia. We looked
03:15into it. We soon realized that prices of homes in the area that we wanted to live
03:20were starting at like 1.5 million dollars. 1.5 million dollars. I remember
03:25growing up in the 90s and calling rich people millionaires. Do you guys
03:29remember that? Rich people used to be called millionaires. Now in 2024 you
03:33literally have to be a millionaire just to buy a home. So to put that into
03:37perspective if Mandy and I wanted to buy a home for 1.5 million dollars we would
03:42have to save up three hundred thousand dollars just for a deposit. Three hundred
03:47thousand dollars for a deposit. And if we did get the loan the repayments would be
03:51about seven and a half thousand dollars per month. So when you take into
03:56account that the average monthly wage in Australia is around six thousand six
04:00hundred dollars before tax. I guess if you doubled that that would be around
04:04thirteen thousand dollars for a couple for the household income before tax. Now
04:09if you take away taxes you take away other expenses like groceries, transport,
04:15health care. You're not left with a lot after a seven and a half thousand dollar
04:18mortgage. In fact I'd probably argue you'd barely be able to cover your mortgage.
04:22And then of course what if you want to start having a family you want to have
04:25some kids. You know I would like my wife to be able to take some time off to look
04:29after the kids. So now you're looking at a single income with a seven and a half
04:34thousand dollar mortgage? That doesn't work. And when I say one and a half
04:37million dollars I'm being generous because one and a half million dollars in
04:41Byron Bay will get you a two-bedroom apartment, maybe a small townhouse at best.
04:48And if you're thinking that's just Byron Bay like it's just that particular
04:51area it's not. Sydney was just named the second most expensive place to live in the
04:56world. Okay we just need to take a quick break to thank Level 8 for sponsoring
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05:14Like us Level 8 is all about traveling light and efficient which is why we've recently
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05:47electronics when you're at the airport and going through security. Honestly I
05:51don't know why they make you take your laptop and your electronics out of your
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05:58super annoying but that's gonna be a lot easier now with our new upgraded carry-on
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06:07stuff isn't gonna get damaged when it's in the overhead lockers. I know
06:11whenever I'm flying and we go through turbulence or like the guy in front of me
06:14just slams his bag on top of my backpack I'm worried that when we get off the
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06:38your purchase. But it isn't just housing that's expensive these days in Australia
06:43the cost of groceries has absolutely skyrocketed over the last few years on
06:48average grocery prices have increased up to 15% per year over the last decade
06:53while grocery stores are making record profits in fact they're making bigger
06:57margins than ever before. When we're living back in Australia if I wanted to take
07:01Mandy out for a nice dinner at the pub nowhere fancy just a regular Tuesday night
07:06dinner I'd want to hope I'd bring more than a hundred bucks with me otherwise
07:09one of us would not be eating that night. And in case you're thinking oh this is
07:14just another lazy millennial that doesn't want to work and wants everything handed
07:18to them that couldn't be further from the truth. I've worked some of the hardest
07:22jobs in the world I believe I've worked in underground mines oil and gas rigs
07:27working 14-hour shifts for 14 days straight getting five days off I've worked in
07:32construction I've worked in landscape maintenance I've done pretty much every
07:36hard job there is to do working 60 70 80 hours per week. In my opinion as young
07:42Australians all we really want is the ability to be able to put a roof over
07:46our head that we can call our own that we don't have fear of being booted out from
07:51at any time where we can paint the walls we can have pets we're not burdened by a
07:5512-month year-to-year lease. And yeah maybe it would be nice to be able to take the
08:00family out for dinner every now and then go on a holiday once or twice a year
08:04without having to worry about going bankrupt. Now obviously the whole world
08:07is going through an inflation right now which may seem like this is an
08:11unsolvable problem. And to be completely honest like I am a capitalist I'm a pure
08:15capitalist I believe capitalism works and it rewards those who work the hardest.
08:19And I also understand that if you're someone who has purchased a house in
08:23Australia over the last decade or so you're probably not too upset about the
08:28increased housing prices. In fact the property value skyrocketing has actually
08:32made you a lot richer and I understand that point of view.
08:35But did you know that only one percent of Australian property investors
08:39own almost a quarter of Australian properties? Well look I'm no genius but
08:44when you read reports that private property developers
08:48and big banks which are giving out loans for increasingly high prices
08:52are turning over record profits year in year out
08:55while everyday Australians can't afford to buy a home
08:58it kind of seems like something's a bit broken doesn't it?
09:01So what's the answer? How could this problem possibly be solved?
09:05I mean as I said I'm no genius but it seems to me like a simple
09:09mathematic equation of supply and demand.
09:13So why doesn't Australia just build more homes?
09:15Wouldn't that make perfect sense for everybody?
09:18Well I did some digging around and the answer to that's actually kind of depressing.
09:22So we had the same problem in Australia about 50 years ago back in the 70s
09:26and home ownership was at around 30 percent.
09:30So the Australian government decided to start building homes for Australians.
09:34The government would then sell the home to Australians for a reasonable price.
09:38I mean the government still made a profit obviously
09:41but the homes were sold at a very reasonable price and
09:44lo and behold in under a decade home ownership went up to about 75 percent.
09:49So is that still happening? Well the answer is no.
09:53Since 2011 the amount of homes being built by the Australian government went from 20,000 to today
09:59zero not one zero houses and if you're wondering why that is and you're wondering hang on that doesn't
10:05make sense I know it doesn't make sense but I'm going to get to that and this might be a
10:10controversial
10:10take but this is just my opinion. If you don't agree let me know down below in the comments because
10:14I'm definitely open to other opinions. So in doing some research I found out that property developers
10:20on average are the biggest donators to Australian government parties every single year and that's
10:26both political parties. So in other words to break it down in layman's terms property developers are
10:32donating record amounts of money to the Australian government. Australian banks are turning over
10:36huge profits year in year out. Property developers are turning over huge profits year in year out.
10:42And politicians are receiving large donations from these property developers every single year.
10:47Oh and also I forgot to mention that both state and federal politicians on average own between four
10:53and five investment properties each. So anyways that's just the facts. I'll let you guys join the dots
10:59and let me know who you think is profiting the most out of the cost of living crisis in Australia
11:04and who would benefit the least from improving that cost of living crisis in Australia. And I think
11:10I'll just leave it at that. If you made it this far thanks for watching and if you found this
11:14video
11:15helpful at all please like and subscribe. See you in the next one. Cheers.
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