悉尼西区贷款违约率为全国之首 (SMH)
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据澳洲储备银行说：西悉尼地区在房市最热的时候是low-doc和不法贷款公司的滋生地，现在它是全国贷款违约率最高的地区。
西悉尼的贷款拖欠超过90天的比率是全国平均的3倍。
Jessica Irvine Economics Correspondent
September 26, 2008
WESTERN Sydney became the nation's breeding ground for low-doc and predatory lenders during the peak of the property boom and residents are now paying the price, with the highest rates of mortgage arrears and repossessions in the country, according to the Reserve Bank.
The proportion of mortgage holders in western Sydney who are late on their loan repayments by 90 days or more is triple the national average.
A combustible mix of loose lending standards, increased appetite for debt and the structure of rewards for mortgage brokers fed a boom in lending in western Sydney in the early part of the decade, according to the Reserve Bank's Financial Stability Review released yesterday.
The boom in house prices spurred the entry of new lenders which, at best, had lower lending criteria, and, at worst, deliberately lent too much money to people they knew could not afford to meet repayments on the assumption that house price gains would cover any losses when they forced the borrower to sell their home, a practice known as "predatory lending".
"As property prices in Sydney began increasing rapidly, many borrowers turned to lenders that allowed higher maximum loan-to-valuation ratios or higher permissible debt-servicing ratios in order for them to borrow larger amounts," the report said.
"For many, the increased risk involved in such loans was perhaps perceived to be mitigated by the prospect of further house price growth."
Mortgage brokers also contributed to the lending boom, earning big upfront rewards and small ongoing commissions for writing the loans. "Concerns remain about brokers' remuneration structures," the Reserve said.
The frenzy continued up until early 2004, when the property bubble burst in western Sydney - a little later than the peak for the rest of Sydney in late 2003.
Home loans written in western Sydney in 2004 are the most likely to go bad, while people who borrowed in subsequent years were also found to struggle more than borrowers in the early part of the decade.
Fairfield-Liverpool area has the highest late-payment rate in Australia. Of the top six regions by mortgage arrears, all six are in western Sydney, including Blacktown, Canterbury and Bankstown. The pain also stretches towards the city, with the inner west registering the 11th highest arrears rates nationally.
"The available evidence suggests that newer lenders seeking to increase their market share, in part through looser lending standards, were particularly active in many of the regions with poor loan performance.
"In western Sydney, for example, mortgage originators appear to have comprised a greater share of lending than for Australia as a whole."
But bank customers are struggling to meet repayments too.
While experiencing lower arrears rates than other lenders, Australian banks have faced a steep rise in late payments in western Sydney since the start of the year, up from one in 200 to one in 125.
Across Australia, the Reserve estimates about 17,000 borrowers are 90 days or more behind on their repayments, up 2000 since the beginning of the year.
Just 0.4 per cent of outstanding loans nationally are in arrears, double the rate of three years ago, but still below the rates of the early 1990s recession. Australian are also faring much better than their American counterparts, where the proportion of prime loans with payments late by 30 days or more is about 4 per cent. In Britain, it is 2.9 per cent.
Yesterday in Sydney's south-west a family was served a statement of claim by their lender: come up with $30,000 straight away or get out on the street. The family owed $700,000, with repayments of about $6000 a month, but they had not paid for three months. The lender had added its legal costs to the bill it had presented them.
Nearby, a family with three children found the sheriff's officers locking them out. They turned to relatives for help and the relatives spent the day trying to find out what they would have to pay to get them back in.
In a third case, a householder in the west was faced with legal action when it was found their financial broker had got their loan by giving the lender misleading information. The householder had battled on borrowing wherever he could but had reached a brick wall.
Karen Cox, the co-ordinator for the Consumer Credit Legal Centre, received each of those calls yesterday in what has become a typical day for her.
There were things people could do, such as getting a reference to the finance ombudsman or the credit ombudsman through an entitlement to a hardship variation or through a negotiated arrangement.
The MP for Blaxland, Jason Clare, whose electorate comprises Bankstown, Punchbowl and Chester Hill, said: "In the sheriff's office in Bankstown, there's a whiteboard with 30 names on it, and they're the 30 families who will lose their homes in the next two weeks."
A senior researcher at the St Vincent de Paul Society, Andy Marks, said the number of clients asking for financial assistance has grown exponentially in western and south-western Sydney.
with Malcolm Brown and Jonathan Dart |
楼主: qian403
发表于 14-11-2008 19:42:04
竟然这都能捞分 
发表于 15-11-2008 02:41:17
