Victoria’s bankruptcy hot spots revealed
A REGION in Melbourne’s west tops the list of Victorian areas with the most personal insolvencies, with “excessive use of credit” the biggest reason.
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MELBOURNE’S southern and western suburbs are bankruptcy hot spots, Australian Financial Security Authority analysis shows.
The Wyndam region in the west tops the list of Victorian areas with the most personal insolvencies for the September quarter, followed by Casey, Dandenong, Cardinia and Frankston in the south east.
The figures show Wyndham suburbs such as Werribee, Point Cook, Hoppers Crossing, Tarneit, Cocoroc and Little River have one of the highest rates of insolvency — at 0.06 per cent of the population. Across the area, 105 people went bust during the three months to September.
On the opposite side of Port Phillip Bay, in the southeastern suburbs, 71 people went broke in the Casey South area, and a further 39 in neighbouring Casey North.
In Dandenong, 48 went broke, Frankston had a further 56, Cardinia 44 and the Mornington Peninsula 46.
In Melbourne’s north, the regional areas of Whittlesea and Wallan recorded 81 personal insolvencies — 0.05 per cent of residents. To the west, Melton, Bacchus Marsh and surrounding areas reported 49 insolvencies for a rate of 0.04 per cent of the population.
The geographic areas named in the survey use Australian Bureau of Statistics boundaries, and some boundaries changed this quarter.
Overall, personal insolvencies in Victoria numbered 1545 for the three months to September, up 6.6 per cent from the 1449 during the same quarter last year.
Metropolitan residents accounted for all the increase — up 10.5 per cent from 1035 to 1144. The number of regional debtors becoming insolvent fell 3 per cent, from 413 to 401 people. However, there were some regional hot spots, including Ballarat with 38 insolvencies, and Bendigo with 37 — both equivalent to 0.05 per cent of their populations.
Geelong, Victoria’s biggest regional city, had 43 insolvencies — a rate equivalent to the statewide average of 0.03 per cent of residents.
More than 80 per cent of debtors declaring themselves insolvent did so for personal reasons, not business-related, the authority said.
The biggest reason was “excessive use of credit” followed by loss of income for reasons such as unemployment and divorce or relationship breakdowns.
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