The June Quarter edition of the Adelaide Bank/REIA Housing Affordability Report has found that housing affordability remained relatively steady with the proportion of income required to meet loan repayments increasing slightly by 0.3 percentage points to 30.9%.
Commenting on the report’s findings, Damian Percy, General Manager of Adelaide Bank said:
“South Australia showed the greatest change with the proportion of income required to meet loan repayments falling by 0.3 percentage points to 27.1% and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) remaining the most affordable state or territory in which to buy a home.
“Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania also showed improvements in affordability, with Tasmania a surprise result for first home buyers revealing a quarterly rise in this market segment of 21.9%.
“Over the past year, more than a quarter of new finance commitments in Tasmania were to first home buyers. This was the nation’s largest rise in what is otherwise a persistently low number in other parts of the nation for first-home buyers.
“The challenge for local, State and Federal government is to return the number of first home buyer owner-occupiers nationwide closer to the historical average figure of around 20%.
“The average loan size to first home buyers increased 0.7% over the June quarter and by 5.3% compared to the same time last year, to $304,470. The average loan size overall is now $341,750 – an increase of $20,335 since the same quarter in 2013.
“Overall, the proportion of family income needed to meet home loan repayments has risen 0.3 percentage points to 30.9%. Compared to this time last year, the new results show only a small improvement in affordability of 0.1 percentage point.
“Encouraging home ownership should be a key priority for any home lender and Adelaide Bank is committed to working with REIA to contribute to the development of sound public policy that will help ease the supply side problems that contribute toward rising housing costs.
“Adelaide Bank’s continuing and widely recognised contribution to improving housing affordability is to keep the cost of lending as low as we can, while providing great service through Australia’s growing network of mortgage managers and brokers” concluded Mr Percy.
