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Some postcodes in Australia have been more vulnerable to the recent rate rises, a new report by Fitch Ratings has found.
The report, Australian Mortgage Delinquency by Postcode, found Nelson Bay on NSW’s north coast to be the worst performing postcode after it recorded the greatest number of loans outstanding.
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According to Fitch Rating’s head of Australian structured finance, Natasha Vojvodic, the report analyses the performance of the local residential mortgage market using data from approximately 730,000 loans outstanding at 30 September 2009, and ranks the performance of regions and postcodes to assess the true impact of recent changes in the mortgage market.
The report also analyses arrears based on loan to value ratio (LVR) and reviews LVR by postcode.
"Even though arrears have improved, performance remains variable based on the postcode, region or state. Regions in Sydney remain the worst performing in Australia, with NSW and WA being the worst performing states," Ms Vojvodic said.
"Improvement in affordability has been the biggest driver in the decrease in arrears and this becomes more apparent with more highly-geared borrowers. As interest rates rise, the trend for borrowers in these areas, such as south western and western Sydney, will reverse and return to be among the worst performing.”
While Nelson Bay was the worst performing postcode in terms of both dollar value and number, the Gosford / Wyong region was found to be the worst performing region.
