It’s little better in Melbourne,where the median house price is now more than $960,000,with households spending an average 32.1 per cent of their incomes on the mortgage. Melbourne households were paying 29.7 per cent of their incomes towards their mortgages in February.
The Reserve Bank last year cut the official cash rate to 0.1 per cent,taking mortgage rates to their lowest level on record. Federal and state government programs aimed at supporting the property market funnelled up to $88,000 to first-home buyers.
Coupled with the closure of the international borders,there has been a surge in house prices in the nation’s capital cities and across almost every region.
Moody’s analysts Pratik Joshi and Ilya Serov said housing affordability across the country had deteriorated over the past year,with Sydney and Melbourne potential buyers the worst hit.
“Australian housing affordability,which deteriorated over the seven months to September 2021,will continue to worsen over the rest of the year and into early 2022 because of ongoing property price rises,” they said.
“In Sydney and Melbourne,the share of household income borrowers need to meet repayments on new mortgages is now worse than the cities’ averages for the past decade.”
Moody’s expects dwelling prices – which have climbed in Sydney by 1.3 per cent so far this October and by 0.7 per cent in Melbourne – to continue increasing albeit at a slower pace.