Anyone who is in the market for their first home probably doesn’t need us to tell them that the recent growth in property prices has presented some challenges for home buyers. However, according to the latest ‘Housing Affordability Report’ which is compiled by the Real Estate Institute of Australia and Adelaide Bank, more first home buyers in Victoria purchased successfully in the September quarter than any other state in Australia.
First home buyer statistics
The report says that almost a third of property purchases by first-home buyers nationally were in Victoria during the September quarter. However, this figure needs to be viewed against a background where the overall number of first home buyers nationally fell by 5.8% when compared with the same three-month period last year. In Victoria, the number of first home purchases was down by 2.1% on the same period in 2015.
First home buyers less active
According to the report, first-home buyers now make up 13.2% of the owner occupier market nationally. This is the lowest percentage recorded by the Australian Bureau of Statistics since it first started tracking this data in 1991. Over that 25-year period the average figure has been 18.5%.
State vs State
Despite all the media attention on rising property prices, it was interesting to see that first-home buyers made up 14.7% of Victoria’s owner occupier market, higher than the national average. In comparison, the figures for New South Wales showed that first home buyers made up just 7.9% of that state’s owner occupier market.
Income and interest rates
One factor that many people overlook is that whilst property prices have risen, the drop in interest rates has had an opposite effect on affordability. The report found that Victoria actually recorded a 0.1% decrease in the proportion of income required to meet average home loan repayments. It found that 30.9% of average income was needed to service the average home loan. This was a major improvement on the 34% recorded at the same time last year.
Avoiding traps in real estate
Making sure that you don’t over-commit yourself when taking out a home loan is just one of the traps to be avoided when you are planning on moving house. So no matter what your plans are, one way to avoid making mistakes is to make sure you read through our free booklet, Fatal Real Estate Traps Exposed. So be sure to download a copy right now while you’re here on our website.
09/24/2024 
