The March quarter edition of the Adelaide Bank/Real Estate Institute of Australia Housing Affordability Report shows an improvement in housing affordability nationally with the proportion of family income required to meet loan repayments decreasing by 0.7 percentage points to 30.8%.
Median weekly family income rose 0.4% to $1,615 during the March quarter of 2015. This represents a 2.5% increase when compared to the same quarter of 2014. When compared to the last quarter, all states and territories saw housing affordability improving with the exception of South Australia where the proportion of income required to meet loan repayments increased by 0.6 percentage points.
Damian Percy, General Manager, Adelaide Bank said: “NSW remains the least affordable state or territory with the average loan size above the $400,000 mark. Property in Sydney and Melbourne appears, to an extent, to have almost become an international asset class.
“I travel around Australia a lot – and there is still comparatively good buying in what I call the ‘lifestyle capitals’ such as my home city of Adelaide and in Hobart, Perth and Canberra. South-East Queensland is also still an affordable favourite with older Australians looking to escape the rat race.
“For the March quarter, with the exception of Tasmania, all states and territories recorded decreases in the number of loans to first home buyers with Tasmania the only state or territory where the number of loans to first home buyers actually increased.
“Compared to twelve months ago, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory were the only jurisdictions to record drops in the average size of a loan to first home buyers while the figure increased 8.3% in South Australia.
“You can sell an older house, 30km from Sydney CBD or middle ring Melbourne, escape the congestion and find some extraordinary properties in other states and regional centres without having to look very hard at all.
“Wherever you decide to live, 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 brokers”, Mr Percy concluded.
Source: Adelaide Bank
