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ISCOVER
Staff Reporter
First home buyers are staying out of the property market, new research has revealed.
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According to the latest AFG Mortgage Index, the aggregator arranged just 96 home loans worth $31 million for first home buyers in Queensland, compared with 265 mortgages worth $79 million the month before.
This reflects a similar trend in NSW where in both October and November the company arranged fewer than half the 219 home loans worth $83 million in September.
State governments in both NSW and Queensland have withdrawn $7,000 first home buyer grants in the past two months.
The proportion of the company’s home loans arranged for first home buyers has slumped in Queensland from levels at around 15 per cent, in the months leading up to the end of the first home buyers grant, to just 5.5 per cent.
In NSW, first home buyers comprised 13 per cent of new home loans up till September, dropping to 5.7 per cent in October and 5.4 per cent in November.
“This trend is both significant and very concerning for the market, going forward,” AFG’s general manager of sales and operations, Mark Hewitt, said. “First home buyers are the lifeblood of the property market – when activity stagnates at the entry level, it affects everyone up the property chain.
“We could be seeing the transition to a generation of renters unless more is done to help people onto the property ladder.”
