Mortgage pain being felt hardest in ALP electorates

The suburbs worst hit by rising mortgages are in Labor electorates, according to research commissioned by the Coalition, as Peter Dutton uses the cost-of-living crisis to target seats held by the Albanese government.

Senator Dean Smith. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Philip Gostelow

The suburbs worst hit by rising mortgages are in Labor electorates, according to research commissioned by the Coalition, as Peter Dutton uses the cost-of-living crisis to target seats held by the Albanese government.

Analysis from the parliamentary library commissioned by opposition assistant Treasury spokesman Dean Smith has laid bare the mortgage repayment increases in the 50 most affected suburbs in each capital city since 2022.

This includes an average 154 per cent increase to monthly repayments in the 50 worst affected suburbs in Perth, 141 per cent in Adelaide, 134 per cent in Brisbane, 95 per cent in Sydney and 68 per cent in Melbourne.

In a list breaking down the three most impacted suburbs in each of the five capital cities, 12 of the 15 are in Labor seats.

The highest was a 212 per cent increase in the Adelaide suburb of Salisbury in the Labor-held seat of Spence, with monthly mortgage repayments rising from $679 to $2117.

In the Labor seat of Perth, mortgage repayments in the suburb of Bayswater increased 209 per cent to $2335 a month.

While the Liberal seat of Forde has the suburb (Eagleby) worst hit in Brisbane, the second worst is in Jim Chalmers’ seat of Rankin, with Woodbridge increasing by 173 per cent to $2223 a month.

Sydney’s hardest hit was Little Bay in Kingsford Smith and Melbourne’s was Maidstone in Fraser, both held by Labor.

Senator Smith said it would take more than one or two interest rate cuts to “repair the damage Labor has inflicted”.

“What is most striking about this data is that it confirms the hardest-hit suburbs are overwhelmingly in Labor-held electorates, whose voters will soon have an opportunity to hold the Albanese government to account,” he said.