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Proving property remains a sound investment for Australians, new research has revealed renters are paying more for housing than home owners.
According to the statistics from RP Data, the average housing costs in 2009-10 were lowest for owners without a mortgage who paid an average of $35/week in housing costs, ranging from $30/week in Tasmania to $44/week in the Australian Capital Territory.
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Mr Kusher said that since these owners had paid off their homes, the costs incurred are likely to relate to service-based items such as rates, electricity, and maintenance and local government utility charges. Across the nation, owners without a mortgage were spending just 3.0 per cent of their gross income on housing costs.
Owners with a current mortgage are paying $408/week in housing costs with $35/week attributable to occupancy costs and $373/week dedicated to paying the mortgage. However, those with a mortgage in Tasmania paid the lowest amount ($279/week) while mortgagees in the Northern Territory paid the greatest amount each week ($486). Across the nation, owners with a mortgage were spending 18.0 per cent of their gross income on housing costs.
During the 2009/10 period, renters were paying $275/week towards their housing costs.
"Occupancy costs for renters are likely to be lower than those for mortgagees or those who fully own their home as rates and utilities are generally paid by the property owners," Mr Kusher said.
State-by-state, the results show that there was a much wider variation in costs ranging from $178/week in Tasmania to $323/week in the Australian Capital Territory. Across the nation, renters were spending 20 per cent of their gross income on housing costs which is a greater proportion being spent by those with a mortgage.
Mr Kusher said that only 6.9 per cent of owners with a mortgage spend more than 50 per cent of their income on housing costs compared with 9.1 per cent of renters.
"Most measures of mortgage stress suggest that if you are spending more than 30 per cent of your take home income on your mortgage you are in mortgage stress - in June of last year 23 per cent of home owners were in a position of mortgage stress," he said.
