How high immigration and Chinese investors have made housing half as affordable ...

House prices in Australia's biggest cities are half as affordable as they were three decades ago following a surge in immigration and Chinese investment.

Sydney's median house price of $869,579 is more than 10 times an average Australian full-time salary of $83,455, despite a record 17 per cent property price plunge during the past two years.

Back in 1987, a typical suburban home with a backyard cost $120,025 - or five times a mean annual wage of $23,858.

Since that time, Australia's net annual immigration pace has more than doubled from 125,800 to 292,280 in the year to April 2019, with the population growth pace of 1.6 per cent the highest in the developed world.

Australian Population Research Institute founder Dr Bob Birrell said there was a direct link between a surge in Sydney and Melbourne median house prices and high immigration.

'Of course. It's a major factor in the demand for houses in Sydney and Melbourne,' the former government immigration adviser told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday.

'One of the factors causing that very high ratio is high demand for houses, a large part of which is driven by immigration.'

Between 2012 and 2017, house prices in Australia's two biggest cities surged with Sydney values rising by 68 per cent as Melbourne's median price climbed by 54 per cent.

This coincided with Australia's net annual immigration pace climbing above 200,000, official figures show.

Prices in middle-distance suburbs had increased, as more skilled migrants moved in, from the Monash council area in Melbourne's south-east to Ryde in Sydney's north.

'It's pretty clear,' Dr Birrell said. 

'They're buying what we might call modest-price houses in the million or so bracket.

'They've had a

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