RP Data shows that the high cost of living around large capital cities is thanks to a concentration of the population in the surrounding areas of these cities.
On an international level, Australian real estate is quite expensive,thanks to the fact that 64 per cent of all Australians live in a capital city and over 55 per cent of the country's population resides in just four cities - Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Brisbane.
The greater Sydney area houses one in five of all Australians.
"Between the eight capital cities and the five largest non-capital city markets, most of which are adjacent to the capital cities, almost three quarters of the country’s residents live in these regions (74.2 percent)," says the report.
Higher population density means that there is a greater demand for most things, especially real estate and when competition heats up for desirable areas, prices rise and 'exclusive' suburbs come into being.
Areas around capital cities are seeing growth - for example, the Hunter and Illawarra areas surrounding Sydney are more populated than Canberra or Darwin. The Gold and Sunshine coasts surrounding Brisbane are also seeing large populations.
