Housing Affordability To Worsen Despite Price Fall
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Housing Affordability To Worsen Despite Price Fall

While the barrier to entry lessen with house prices set to fall, interest rates rising make serviceability a larger issue.

By Terry Christodoulou
Thu, May 12, 2022 4:55pmGrey Clock 2 min

Those out there hoping that downward pressure on housing prices would make the market more affordable are set for a shock with houses unlikely to become more affordable even if values were to drop by 20% according to the ANZ/Corelogic Housing Affordability report.

According to the report, higher mortgages would negate any benefit gained from lower prices while ANZ expects the cash rate to rise to 2.25% by May next year – which would trigger a decline in house prices and lower the deposit hurdle.

But housing affordability is still set to deteriorate as mortgage repayments rise and borrowing capacity lessens according to ANZ senior economist Felicity Emmett.

“A lot of people think falling prices will make houses more affordable, but that’s actually not the case,” she said.

“New borrowers will still need to pay higher mortgage repayments even if prices fall by 20 per cent because of the increase in interest rates.

“We found that you would need a very significant fall, something like 25 per cent to offset the impact of rate rises over the next year or so, but we don’t expect that to happen.”

ANZ is predicting house prices to drop by 6% nationally next year, Sydney is predicted for a drop of 7%, Melbourne by 6%, Brisbane 3% and Adelaide 5%.

Perth and Hobart are also expected to fall by 6% each and Darwin and Canberra by 8% each.

Housing affordability has worsened since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic with the ratio of house prices to household income reaching a record high 9.3 nationwide.

In Sydney that ratio is now 13.3 times higher than household income whereas in Melbourne the value is 10.6, Brisbane 9.0, Adelaide 8.6, Perth 6.1, Hobart 9.8, Darwin 4.5 and Canberra 8.2.

For the average Sydneysider, it now takes 17.7 years to save the 20% deposit to buy a house in Sydney — a rise of two years and 11 months in a 12 month period.

Despite serviceability concerns, falling house prices could also shorten the time it takes to get a foot in the housing market according to Eliza Own, CoreLogic’s head of research.

“Presumably the pressure will be less on the deposit hurdle and more on the amount of income required to service a mortgage, but that is assuming we see consistent price falls off the back of higher interest rates,” she said.

However, the portion of income needed to service a new mortgage to buy a house has jumped to a record 64.4% in Sydney, up from 54% the year prior. Melbourne has lifted to 51.7% from 47.1% last year and rose to 45.25% nationally.



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After more than a year, prices have finally levelled out in prime central London, while outer London saw a small uptick in high-end prices from the previous quarter

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The first quarter of the year brought some long-awaited signs of recovery in London’s luxury housing market, offering the first positive quarterly price growth since September 2022, according to a report from Savills on Wednesday.

After six consecutive quarterly price falls, luxury home prices in central London levelled out in the first three months of the year, with a 0.1% quarterly uptick in prices. The £3 million to £5 million (US$3.79 million to US$6.32 million) market saw a slightly larger increase of 0.3%.

Outer London’s luxury market saw greater quarterly price growth, with home prices up 0.8%, as some stability returned to mortgage costs and lured more buyers back to the market, according to the report.

All of this is evidence that the market is “in early stages of recovery,” according to Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills.

“The outlook for the housing market has certainly improved, partly because the mortgage market has recovered more quickly than expected,” Cook said in the report. “With the first rate cut rapidly coming into view and recessionary risks easing, greater stability has returned to the cost of mortgage debt, which has positively impacted domestic prime markets, where many buyers rely on borrowing, most notably in leafy outer prime South and West London, as well as the commuter belt.”

Outside of London, prices across the U.K. saw no quarterly growth heading into the beginning of the spring market, which is expected to bring higher levels of buyer activity in many regions.

Suburban regions saw prices dip just 0.1%, while urban areas—like Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, and Bath and Oxford in England—saw prices increase by 0.6%.

Cook said regional buyers are more likely to be concerned about market uncertainty than London buyers in the lead up to the general election.

“As a result, buyers are still expected to be less committed until the dust has settled,” he said.

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Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.

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