Australia is home to three of the most 'severely unaffordable housing markets' studied by an international group that predicts the housing bubble here is yet to burst.

A comparison of median house prices with median household incomes in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Britain and the United States found that Australia had the most cities in the 'severely unaffordable' category - where house prices are more than five times the median income.

The Sunshine Coast in Queensland was the least affordable. The Gold Coast came third, behind Honolulu, and Sydney was fifth, behind Vancouver. Melbourne and Adelaide were equal 12th and were still less affordable than New York (14th), London (16th) and Dublin (32nd).

The public policy group Demographia, which conducted the study, said affordability in Australia was worsening relative to Britain, Ireland and New Zealand, where prices had recently collapsed.

The Age