Media coverage - ABC: Homebuyers shut out until 2020

House prices in capital cities are forecast to stay severely unaffordable for at least a decade, according to a study by the University of Canberra and AMP that found that median house prices jumped nearly 150 per cent between 2001 and 2011.

Sydney remains the most expensive place to buy a house while Hobart is the cheapest.

Ben Phillips from the University of Canberra is the lead author of the report by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) and AMP, which looked at housing affordability from 2001 to 2011.

Mr Phillips says housing in Australia has become severely unaffordable and will remain so for at least the next 10 years.

One of the most surprising figures to come out of the report was how unaffordable houses in places such as Newcastle and Wollongong were.

"It's now the case that these cities are actually just as unaffordable as somewhere like Sydney or Melbourne and the reason for this is because whilst their house prices are a little bit lower, their incomes are significantly lower than a city like Sydney," Mr Phillips said.

"I guess the distinction in this report though is we've sort of split it up into the housing haves and the housing have-nots, and the affordability report looks very much at those trying to get into the market as opposed to those who are already in the market," he said.

Read the full ABC report online

Read highlights from the report here (PDF download - 1.46MB)