Three Australian cities - Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane - have been named in the top 100 cities for families to live in across the globe.
These rankings come from German property company Homeday, which rated cities around the world against a variety of factors, including the affordability of homes, the general cost of living, proximity to amenities, access to healthcare and parental leave rights, before determining which were best for families.
Copenhagen in Denmark was named as the number one best city for families to live in, while Manila in the Philippines occupied the spot at the other end of the scale, taking 100th place on the list.
Australia fared well in the rankings, with Sydney named as the 13th most suitable city for families, with Melbourne just behind in 15th place and Brisbane taking the number 18 spot, meaning the nation didn't drop lower than the top 20 overall.
Brisbane was also named as the 22nd best city in terms of how average salaries corresponded with housing affordability, placing it markedly above Melbourne (50th) and Sydney (58th).
However, Melbourne and Sydney ranked higher against other factors, which is why they ended up with higher ratings overall.
For example, each of the three Australian cities ranked in the top 20 in terms of safety, while Sydney and Melbourne made the top ten when rated by parenting experts, taking fourth and sixth place respectively.
Yet factors such as the size of homes prevented them from ranking higher overall.
Dr Kate Raynor, a research fellow at the University of Melbourne, explained: "If we talk about Melbourne and the influx of apartments that have come through in the past five years, a lot of them are one-bedroom, two-bedroom, really small apartments - they're not big enough for a family to live there."
She added that "things like increasing the amount of storage that's available and creating shared space so that the kids can all play together" would be something for property investors to consider if they want to make money out of the family market in the future.
