A non-bank lender has confirmed the continued diminishing of the portion of its customers on COVID-19 hardship arrangements, a trend aided by the gradual reopening of the economy.
Firstmac released new analysis of its $12.8bn loan book which showed the percentage of mortgage holders on fully or partially suspended repayments dropped to 5.37% at June 30 from 5.65% on May 31.
“Over the past two weeks, our hardship team has been contacting affected customers to check on their circumstances and we have been pleasantly surprised to find that a lot are choosing to resume normal repayments because their situation has improved,” said Firstmac managing director Kim Cannon.
“Many people are still doing it tough, but new hardship applications from our customers have fallen to about one per day, down from more than a hundred and fifty per day at its peak three months ago.”
Over the month of June, there was just $9.5m of new COVID-19 hardship assistance requests from Firstmac borrowers, as compared to the $91m in loans that moved out of COVID-19 hardship status.
According to Cannon, the majority of borrowers attributed their return to normal repayments either to the government’s Jobkeeper payment or to getting more hours at work.
“As the economy is progressively reopened, we are optimistic that more of our customers in the worst affected industries like hospitality and retail will be able to pick up work and see their financial position strengthen,” Cannon added.
“It is still possible that a second COVID-19 wave could set us back again, but so far, the signs of recovery are promising.”
