Want to buy that home on the South Coast? Hopefully you've spent the past two decades saving for the deposit.
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The latest figures on housing affordability, released today by ANZ and Core Logic, show it will take around two decades for home buyers to save for a 20 per cent deposit.
For those in the Shoalhaven, it will take 21.3 years to save enough money.
Elsewhere on the South Coast (Eurobodalla region and beyond), the amount of time needed to pull together a home deposit is 19.6 years.
These figures and more come from the ANZ CoreLogic Housing Affordability Report, which looks at recent trends in the market and four main drivers of housing affordability:
- the ratio of home value to household income;
- how long it takes to save a 20 per cent deposit;
- the percentage of a buyer's income needed to pay a new mortgage, and;
- the percentage of a renter's income needed to pay rent.
According to the report, Shoalhaven buyers are spending 77.5 per cent of their income on paying their mortgage. 49.1 per cent of tenants' income is going towards rent.
Shoalhaven and Southern Highlands rental costs have soared in the past quarter.
According to the report, the regions experienced one of the largest increases in percentage of income required to service rent. Over the past two years,
Across the rest of the South Coast, 71.3 per cent of a buyer's income is going towards their mortgage, while renters are parting with 48.9 per cent of their income.
The data shows a sharp rise across all four drivers for housing affordability since March 2020 - both nationally and regionally. ANZ has described the trend as an "extraordinary upswing".
Three months ago, the figures showed buyers needed 16.3 years to save for a 20 per cent house deposit in the Shoalhaven, and 14.9 years on the South Coast.
Two years ago, a buyer would have needed around 12 years to save for a deposit in either region.
Housing affordability is the number one issue for residents of the Gilmore electorate going in to the federal election.
The Housing Affordability Report looked at figures for the January-March quarter for 2022; this means recent interest rate rises were not part of the findings. It uses rental values from CoreLogic, along with further data and income modelling from the Australian National University.