I’ve been selling property in Sydney for thirty-five years, and I’ve watched the math change in a way that’s hard to overstate. A generation ago, a nurse, a teacher, or a cop could walk into a bank, save for a couple of years, and own a decent two-bedroom unit in a decent suburb by the time they were in their forties. Today, that same nurse, teacher, or cop is looking at a decade of saving just to get the deposit together — and another thirty years of repayments after that.
The numbers don’t lie. So let me walk you through what actually happened, decade by decade, using three real examples: a registered nurse, a primary school teacher, and a police officer in Sydney, all trying to buy the same two-bedroom unit in Camperdown.
1985: When Working People Could Own by Forty-Three
Picture 1985. The interest rates were punishing — sitting around 11 per cent — but the prices hadn’t yet decoupled from what ordinary people earned.
The nurse made about $14,000 a year. The teacher made about $15,000. The cop made about $15,500. These were solid, respectable wages for the time. A decent two-bedroom unit in Camperdown cost around $70,000. At 20% deposit — the standard required — each of them needed $14,000.
For the nurse, that deposit was exactly one year of gross salary. For the teacher and the cop, it was slightly less — about eleven months. Here’s the practical part: if any of them saved 15% of their income (what a disciplined saver might do), they could accumulate that deposit in about ten to twelve months.
When they walked into the bank with their savings in hand, the lender would advance around $56,000 over an eighteen-year term at 11%. The monthly payment came to about $545.
For the nurse earning $14,000 annually (about $1,167 monthly gross), the mortgage ate up 47% of what she earned. For the teacher and cop, earning slightly more, it was closer to 43–44%. High by today’s standards, but manageable then because of two things: the loan term was short (eighteen years, not thirty), and inflation was eating away at the debt every year. By the time they were forty-three years old, the mortgage was gone. They owned the unit outright.
1995: The Sweet Spot — Still Possible on One Wage
By 1995, the picture had shifted, but not yet catastrophically.
The nurse was now earning about $32,000 a year. The teacher about $35,000. The cop about $37,000. All had seen their wages rise, but modestly. The two-bedroom unit in the same area had climbed to around $170,000. The deposit requirement was still 20% — $34,000 to $37,000 depending on profession.
For the nurse, that took about eighteen months to save. For the teacher and cop, with slightly higher wages, about seventeen months. Interest rates had fallen to around 7%. The bank approved loans of $136,000 to $148,000 over twenty years. The monthly payments ranged from $965 to $1,050.
For the nurse earning $32,000 annually (about $2,667 monthly gross), the mortgage took up 36% of her income. For the teacher and cop, earning slightly more, it was closer to 32–34%. This was actually the sweet spot across all three decades. The monthly burden was manageable. The loan term was moderate — twenty years. And if they’d bought at twenty-five, they’d own it free by forty-five. Wages and prices were still tethered to each other. It was still possible on a single income for any of them.
2024: The Decade-Long Deposit, The Three-Decade Mortgage
Now jump to 2024.
The nurse earns about $85,000 a year. The teacher about $82,000. The cop about $90,000. All have seen their wages roughly triple since 1995, which sounds good — but the unit tells a different story.
A two-bedroom unit in Camperdown now costs around $650,000. Each of them needs a 20% deposit: $130,000.
At 15% savings rate, that takes about twenty-six months to accumulate. More than two years. And that’s assuming no life events derail the saving. In practice, many tell me it’s taken three or four years.
When they walk into the bank, the interest rate is around 6% (and has been as high as 4.35% earlier in 2026). The bank approves a $520,000 loan over thirty years. The monthly payment is $3,220.
For the nurse earning $85,000 annually (about $7,083 monthly gross after tax), the mortgage eats up 45% of what she earns. For the teacher earning $82,000, it’s similar — around 46%. For the cop earning $90,000, it’s slightly better — about 43%. But here’s where it gets sharp: even though these percentages look similar to 1985 (43–47%), the timeline has stretched from eighteen years to thirty years. If they buy at twenty-five, they’ll be fifty-five or fifty-seven before they own it outright. That’s a decade longer in servitude to the mortgage.
And if rates rise again — which they’ve already done multiple times in 2026 — that monthly percentage can climb north of 50%, pushing the payoff even further out.
What Actually Changed
The nurse’s wage went from $14,000 to $85,000 — a rise of about six times. The teacher’s from $15,000 to $82,000 — roughly five and a half times. The cop’s from $15,500 to $90,000 — about five and three-quarter times.
The unit price went from $70,000 to $650,000 — more than nine times higher.
Wages grew by a factor of 5 to 6. Prices grew by a factor of 9. That gap — that’s where the squeeze lives.
In 1985, a nurse needed one year of salary to gather a deposit. A teacher needed eleven months. A cop needed ten months. In 2024, all three need nearly twenty months — almost two years of not spending a single dollar on anything except the deposit.
But that’s only half the story. The loan term stretched by twelve years. So even though the monthly percentage looks similar on paper, a nurse, teacher, or cop in 2024 will spend twelve extra years making payments compared to their 1985 counterparts.
The deposit is the barrier to getting in. The thirty-year term is the barrier to ever getting out.
The Math Nobody Talks About
There’s another layer that makes today different. In 1985, a nurse’s mortgage repayment was 47% of her income, but inflation was running at around 10%. That meant the real value of her debt was shrinking by 10% a year in real terms. The debt was eating itself. By 1995, inflation had moderated to around 3–4%, but it was still working in the borrower’s favour.
In 2024, inflation is around 3–4%, and the RBA has been raising rates. The real value of the debt isn’t melting away. It’s compounding. A nurse, teacher, or cop in 2024 is locked into paying back nearly the full value of what they borrowed, adjusted for only modest inflation.
And one more thing: in 1985 and 1995, a single wage was sufficient. A nurse, teacher, or cop could buy alone. In 2024, the market assumes two incomes. The unit price implicitly assumes both partners are working and both are bringing home a professional wage. If you’re a single nurse, teacher, or cop, you’re effectively locked out of owner-occupation in central Sydney. You’re renting for life.
The Payoff Timeline: The Real Cost
Here’s what really separates the eras — not the monthly percentage, but the years:
1985: Buy at 25, own free by 43. Working life ahead: 22 years until retirement.
1995: Buy at 25, own free by 45. Working life ahead: 20 years until retirement.
2024: Buy at 25, own free by 55–57. Working life ahead: 8–10 years until retirement.
That’s the trap. The nurse, teacher, or cop in 2024 is paying a mortgage well into their fifties, right up to the edge of retirement — when they should be building superannuation and preparing to stop work, not servicing debt.
So What Does This Mean?
It means the affordability problem isn’t cyclical — a thing that interest rates can fix when they fall. It’s structural. Prices have decoupled from wages in a way that has fundamentally changed what home ownership means.
Forty years ago, a nurse, a teacher, or a cop could own their home and build equity while still young. Today, they’re likely to spend their entire working life servicing a mortgage on an asset that’s never fully theirs until retirement — if then.
The bank will tell you the percentage looks manageable. But percentages hide time. And time is what you don’t get back.
