One in four Australian homeowners are facing higher mortgages while rental vacancy is scarce in some cities, with the September Homebuyer Confidence Index showing that costs and mortgage rates climbed 21 percent in March.
Meanwhile, data from SQM Research Pty showed that rental vacancies slipped from 1.9 percent to 1.8 percent a month ago, below the three percent equilibrium rate.
“As the market slows, people just take their properties off the market and delay their decision to move, rather than renting it,” said Matthew Hassan, Senior Economist at Westpac Banking Corp in Sydney.
”We see a significant rise in unemployment in the next 12 months. So in the near term, we’re likely to see more stress in the mortgage belt.”
A RP Data report published in July noted that residential home prices have declined, while rents have risen continually at 2.9 percent for the three months ending 30 June 2010.
“Despite 40 percent of recent first-home buyers putting more than half their monthly income towards servicing debt, we found just 15 percent expect to have difficulties paying their mortgage in the year ahead,” said Ellie Comerford, CEO of Genworth.
“To date there is no significant trend of vendors, having failed in selling their properties, offering up for rent instead,” said Louis Christopher, Managing Director at SQM.
“So, the rental market remains largely a landlords’ market for now.”
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