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Australians’ average mortgage loan size ballooned past half a million for the first time last quarter, according to comparison website comparethemarket.com.au in its analysis of aggregator AFG's data.
The average loan size grew to $500,446 across the country in the second quarter of FY18. Over the last five years, the size has grown 26%, up from $396,445 in the second quarter of FY13.
This indicates that Australians are willing to take on deeper levels of debt, said comparethemarket.com.au spokesperson Abigail Koch.
“Residents in our nation’s most populous states – NSW and Victoria – are responsible for this growth, with NSW residents recording an average mortgage loan of $613,084 last quarter,” she said.
Victoria saw an increase in average loan size that was nearly double that of NSW over the past 12 months – 4.3% for Victorian buyers and 1.8% for those in NSW, AFG data shows.
“There has been a lot of focus on Sydney house prices, and therefore mortgage sizes, but homebuyers in Victoria are seeing the biggest increases,” said AFG CEO David Bailey.
Victoria’s average mortgage size now sits at $496,815.
Meanwhile, first home buyers’ share of loans has remained in the double digits since the third quarter of FY17. They accounted for 13% of the total volume in the second quarter of FY18, AFG data shows.
The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that the number of loans released for first home buyers as a percentage of total owner-occupied loans reached a high of 18% in November 2017, up from 17.6% the previous month.
“It’s a welcome trend that first home buyers are getting back into the market after a lull over the last few years,” said Koch.
“This indicates that the stamp duty concessions introduced in July last year may be having their desired effect, along with the plethora of affordably priced apartments that have recently come to market.”
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