Revealed: Homeowners in 142 Qld suburbs locked in mortgage prison
New data has revealed the most unaffordable suburbs to have a home loan. SEARCH THE FULL LIST
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Homeowners in 142 suburbs across Queensland could be locked in mortgage prison for up to 45 years, with a new report revealing the most unaffordable areas to have a home loan.
The SuburbTrends data analysed median property prices and household incomes to determine the postcodes where owners were forking out the most from their budget to service their mortgage.
Main Beach on the Gold Coast was ranked as the state’s least affordable market, with homeowners there typically strapped with loan repayments for a whopping 45 years.
Nearby Surfers Paradise (north) was close behind, at 42 years, while a loan for a house at Mermaid Beach would take 29 years to pay off.
Inner-city New Farm was Brisbane’s least affordable market, with an average loan life of 24 years, then St Lucia, Robertson, and Newstead/Bowen Hills, all about 22 years.
SuburbTrends founder Kent Lardner said a benchmark of ten years or less to pay off a loan for a typical house or unit in the suburb was used to determine affordability. A total of 142 areas exceeded that benchmark.
And while many of the state’s most expensive property markets were also the least affordable, Mr Lardner said that was not always the case.
“Housing affordability isn’t merely about house prices or rents. It encompasses household income and existing savings or wealth as well,” he said.
“Depending on the household income level, many suburbs can simultaneously be affordable and expensive.”
For example, a house in Coolangatta, where the median price was $1.44m, would take 21 years to pay off, based on the average household income in the suburb of $69,212.
A home loan in Hamilton would extend equally as long, based on the suburbs’s median house price of $2.3m and average household income of $107,172.
Samford Valley in the Moreton Bay district ranked as an affordable market despite the median buy-in of $1.4m, with average household income of $145,912 and a typical loan life of under 10 years.
A Finder survey released in the wake of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) cash rate hike to 3.85 per cent this month found 43 per cent of Aussies were stressed by the pressures of meeting rent or mortgage repayments.
Finder head of consumer research Graham Cooke said 11 interest rate rises in 12 months had added $14,000 to the average annual mortgage of $586,000.
“The market consensus is that we are now at the peak of a frenzied, steep climb,” Mr Cooke said.
“If the RBA does ease the cash rate, it will likely do so gradually, with a watchful eye on inflation.”
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Mr Lardner said 36 per cent of the nation’s housing markets were ranked as unaffordable, compared to 6 per cent of unit markets.
“The price difference between a house and a unit typically stands at around $300,000, a substantial sum, particularly for first-time home-buyers trying to accumulate a deposit and handle repayments,” he said.
But he warned unit prices were also on the rise due to a lack of supply and surging demand on the back of strong population growth.
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