Australia is falling behind in housing affordability despite its recent rank as the world’s 10th most socially advanced nation, a study by a US-based non-for-profit has found.
 
The country has have scored well in terms of freedom of speech, freedom of movement and political rights in the Social Progress Index published by Social Progress Imperative. But for an official at Deloitte, Australia’s housing affordability “is not doing particularly well”, reports The ABC Online.
 
Lynne Pezzullo, lead partner of health economics and social policy at the accounting firm Deloitte, told The ABC that Australia only ranks 19th in the world when it comes to shelter and 51st in terms of housing affordability.
 
"Access to affordable housing is a key issue and Australia is not doing particularly well in that area, even though we have very low interest rates at the moment," Pezzullo said.
 
"But importantly it's our housing pricing and our access into the housing market, both in terms of rent and also in terms of purchase, which are driving the poor performance we have in that area."
 
Norway tops the list, with Sweden, Switzerland, Iceland, New Zealand and Canada following suit. Behind Australia are bigger economies such as Britain, Germany, Japan and the US. 
 

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