The Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) says that in the September quarter of 2016, housing affordability in Australia declined marginally with the proportion of the median family income required to meet average monthly loan repayments increasing to 29.5% from 29.4% in the previous quarter.
REIA President Neville Sanders says, “The latest Adelaide Bank/REIA Housing Affordability Report shows that whilst the proportion of the median family income required to meet average monthly loan repayments increased by 0.1 percentage points, it is still at the lower end over the last seven years. Unfortunately, historically low interest rates were unable to offset the increasing size of mortgages resulting in the rise in the proportion of the median family income required to meet average monthly loan repayments.”
“Over the September quarter, affordability improved in Victoria, South Australia, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory. New South Wales remained the least affordable state or territory for home buyers. Tasmania had the smallest average loan size while the proportion of first home buyers on the owner-occupier market was the largest in Western Australia.”
“The September quarter brought good news for renters. The proportion of the median family income required to meet median rents decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 24.2% during the quarter and South Australia was the only jurisdiction where rental affordability worsened.”
“The Australian Bureau of Statistics has recently revised its housing finance survey with the changes affecting statistics on owner-occupied and investment housing, the number of first home buyers and housing loan outstanding to households. These changes affected our September quarter publication.”
“The revision downgraded the proportion of first home buyers in the total number of owner-occupier housing finance commitments. It is extremely disappointing that the revised figures show fewer first home buyers since 2012 than previously reported. First home buyer financial commitments are down to 13.1 per cent of total owner-occupied housing in September. This is the lowest figure since the ABS series was commenced in June 1991 and compares to an average of 18.5 per cent over the period. With the average loan sizes continuing to rise REIA is concerned that the proportion may fall even further in the coming quarters,” concluded Mr Sanders.
