Housing affordability in Australia has hit a new low, according to the Real Estate Institute of Australia.
The REIA’s Deposit Power Housing Affordability Report, released today, shows that the proportion of income required to meet mortgage repayments increased 5.8% to 34.8% over the year.
Over the third quarter, housing affordability nationwide decreased 0.2%, though some states and territories experienced moderate improvements.
“Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, all states and territories recorded a decline in housing affordability. The largest decreases were evident in New South Wales and Victoria where the proportions of income required to meet loan repayments increased 6.5 and 7.5 percentage points respectively,” REIA president David Airey said.
The total number of loans excluding refinancing fell 2.9% over the quarter, and have declined 28.3% over the year. The REIA has said this represents the largest annual decline since March 2001. The third quarter also saw the lowest quarterly participation of first home buyers since 2004.
“These all-time lows are extremely concerning. Not only is affordability on the decline, but loans being issued are down and first home buyer participation in the market is the lowest it has been in six years,” Airey said.
Source: BrokerNews website, 8 Dec 2010
Posted by admin on Wednesday the 8th of December, 2010. Currently No Comments »
Read related subjects to this article from Iden Money on Uncategorized.