Three generations of this Melbourne family tells a story about Australia's soaring house prices

When Neil Cornish was a young boy in the 1950s, he and three friends built a model village in the backyard.

For fun, the boys started trading homes between them for pretend coins.

Over two years, the village grew larger and larger, and the young owners became more aspirational.

"We started building roads and moss gardens," Neil remembers.

Then one day, the four boys decided to introduce more 'coins' into the system.

Suddenly everything became too expensive, the game wasn't fun anymore, and the town was abandoned.

"It seemed just to deflate the whole thing," Neil says.

House That Attracts