from Business Insider Australia http://www.businessinsider.com.au/heres-what-economists-are-saying-before-this-weeks-crucial-australian-inflation-report-2016-7

AFAIK nobody at the Reserve Bank has mooted an interest rate rise any time soon. OTOH their new Governor has come out and pointed to ending the elephant in the room, "Negative Gearing" as being the only way house prices can slow "for a while. " (Negative gearing law allows people who buy an investment home to claim their loan interest as a tax deduction).

With the possible end of Negative Gearing, the end or slowing of Australia's housing bubble will not need any interest rise to get ordinary home owners into trouble : as soon as your house is worth less than your mortgage you can default and banks will foreclose - the same as in the States.

@Haberdasher

I think current homes prices reflect first stages of marginal collapse. Big amount of people who are middleman and such are forced to increase prices on things you can not live without to keep average margins on level where system can sustain itself.

Hi @tenjin, I have worked mainly in the television industry as a freelancer, AD, floor manager, assistant producer etc, in Melbourne. So my advice on work would come from that angle. But I’d rather stay on topic with the Australian economy, and advice concerning moving over here with wife and 2 children. It’s good that you are thinking about doing it in a couple of years because I firmly believe the good times here in Australia are historically going to go the same as all of our booms in the past. The cost of housing is reaching the point of madness, and the great Australian dream has always been home ownership, and young people have been borrowing insane amounts of money to compete against developers, people of my age buying 2nd properties as superannuation schemes with tax concessions, and their own demographic to get into the market. When interest rates start going up, as they will soon, a lot of people are going to be caught out with very little collateral in their house, and their property will be worth far less than what they purchased it for, so the Banks will move in and we’ll see fire sales all over the place because they can’t make repayments. You really need about $1.3-1.5 million AUS at the moment to buy with in 30k of Sydney or Melbourne, or else you’ll be travelling 4-5 hours a day to and fro from work, and living in the sticks. To work in your field you need to be pretty close to town. I haven’t been to Switzerland for 40 years, but stayed with a family in Dotzigen for a while and although they had a good standard of living, they were wise with their money and hard workers. So maybe you should evaluate your current worth and make a comparison as to how much it would cost to sell up and buy up in Oz on today’s market. As far as employment goes feel free to message me and I’ll be able to give advice on the freelance market here, but mainly concerning camera work as I work with quite a few good DOP’s. But in essence I think this is how it’s going to happen here in Australia very soon, “we will go to bed on a Saturday night after another day of record auction prices and clearances, and wake up on Sunday to news that the reserve bank is increasing the 1st of several rate increases”, and by Monday night’s News programme panic will have hit the market. Hope I haven't scared you off, but that's the way I'm seeing it at the moment and I hope I'm wrong. Cheers mate.

Cost of housing in Melbourne and Sydney is about equal 4th in the world, and intersest rates are still at lowest ever now. I think that's reflected in the first graph, or maybe it's showing that only repayments on principal are being paid? Auction clearances are still at all time high, and housing price boom still happening because of developers and baby boomers puffing the price. Young people getting into market want brand new house, new furniture, new car, and still travel the world...all on credit. Goverment spent our huge surplus after GFC (2008) on stupid initiatives to avoid slow down. Our mining boom is over, no local industries any more, and interest rates WILL go up. When interest rates go up employment could take a whack, housing prices will fall, young people will still have 90-95% debt in their property...the rest will be history repeating itself. I haven't mentioned business and the consequence of interest rises because it's a all a bit too academic (economics) for me to coment, but a lot of young people and young business people have never experienced high interest rates in their adult life. I'm holding on tight.