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More of Australia’s new generation of first home buyers (FHB’s) are living with credit defaults, which could be a major contributing factor in country’s ‘dim’ first home buyer figures - with Gen Y facing credit lockdown in increasing numbers - says a credit repair specialist .
According to a recent report from credit reporting agency Veda Advantage, the number of credit defaults amongst Gen Y has grown 5.3% over the past three years to 60% of the share of all credit defaults.
Gen Y appears to have the lion’s share of defaults across all account types: telecommunications, credit cards, utilities and personal loans.
Figures released yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirm FHB commitments as a percentage of total owner occupied housing finance commitments fell to 14.9% in December, 2012 from 15.8% in November 2012.
CEO of MyCRA Credit Rating Repair, Graham Doessel, says goals for owning property may be far out of Gen Y’s grasp.
#pb# “The older portion of Gen Y should be collectively entering the property market, but it seems more are suffering with five years of credit defaults and unable to even get a mobile phone plan, let alone a home loan.”
Doessel says education and advocacy is the key to helping Gen Y out of the credit crunch because they’re ‘only a product of the credit environment’ they were born into.
“There is a real lack of education around credit issues and credit reporting and this has been a problem for some time. Many Gen Y’s had credit thrown at them in their younger years, pre –GFC and now they are feeling the ramifications of credit overload.”
Furthermore, he says, there’s been a ‘noted lack’ of consistency in credit reporting, which has led to a number of inaccurate and unfair credit defaults placed on consumer credit reports.
“It is high time that consumers and their advocates insist on accurate credit reporting if we are going to have any chance of moving the housing industry forward.”
