Login
ISCOVER
Housing affordability continued to worsen in the December quarter, the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) and Deposit Power revealed today.
Data from the institute shows home loan affordability deteriorated by 2.2 per cent over the quarter and 6.3 per cent over the year.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
The proportion of family income now required to meet average family home loan repayments is 37.4 per cent.
New South Wales is the least affordable state with 39.8 per cent of family income needed to meet mortgage repayments.
The cost of meeting home loan repayments however may be more desirable than paying rent in some states, with the latest data indicating that renting is close to becoming as unaffordable as buying.
Overall in Australia, renting families now require 23.9 per cent of family income to meet rental payments.
In Darwin renting has in fact become more expensive than buying, where the proportion of family income required for rent is 26.1 per cent – 2.8 per cent more than the figure required to meet home loan repayments.
Renters in Tasmania are also unfortunate, requiring 28.4 per cent of family income the meet rental commitments – the highest in all Australian states. The REIA attributes this to the low median income in Tasmania and relatively high rents.
“Again the clear message is that more housing supply is needed to ease financial and social stress,” said president of the REIA Noel Dyett.
“Measures announced by the Government to address affordability are welcome, but will not have immediate effect. Buyers can expect the pain to continue for some time,” he said.
Published: 27-02-08
