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Official data refutes claims of poor affordability
Three research reports published in late August and early September
paint a positive picture of housing affordability. Their combined impact
makes nonsense of claims that housing affordability has deteriorated,
that Australia has the world’s most expensive housing and that we are in
the midst of a real estate bubble.
A report published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that
housing costs, relative to incomes, are the same as they were in 1995.
This applies both to households that rent and households that own with a
mortgage.
Director of the Living Conditions section Emily Cunningham said the
report showed households that owned their home with a mortgage had
the highest housing costs, averaging $432 per week. This
represented 18% of their gross household income. Housing costs
for private renter households were 20% of gross household income.
"In 2012, both owners with a mortgage and private renter
households spent the same proportion of their income on housing
costs as they did in 1995,” said Cunningham.
Two regular reports on housing affordability, one by the
Commonwealth Bank-HIA and the other by the AdelaideBank-
REIA, were both published around the same time. Both indicate
that we have had 10 consecutive quarters of improving
affordability.
All the components that make up an affordability index have
moved in the right direction to create improvements in
affordability. Average incomes have risen steadily, interest rates
have dropped sharply and, until the recent recovery in property markets, house prices had fallen
since 2010.
For the past three years, including this year, average incomes have risen more than average prices,
while the cost of borrowing has dropped.
Overall, according to the Housing Affordability Report from the AdelaideBank and the Real Estate
Institute of Australia, the proportion of household income required to meet typical mortgage
payments is the lowest since the June Quarter of 2003. |
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