Canberra has experienced one of the biggest improvements in housing affordability in the country, but it still takes almost two incomes to pay off a mortgage in the nation’s capital.
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The latest Housing Industry Association-Commonwealth Bank housing affordability report, published today, found affordability was at its highest point nationally since late 2009.
“Lower interest rates and reasonable earnings growth drove the December quarter improvement. Monthly mortgage repayments in the December quarter eased by a non-trivial 1.74 per cent on the back of lower interest rates while the average weekly ordinary time earnings of an adult working full time increased by 0.5 per cent over the three months to November 2011,” the report said.
“Offsetting these positive influences was a modest increase in dwelling prices at the aggregate national level.”
However, median prices were down in the ACT – by 3 per cent - during the quarter, while average wages were up 0.6 per cent in the three months.
“Given that all three inputs into the housing affordability index moved favourably in the December quarter it is not surprising that the index improved by a substantial 6.1 per cent (3.5 points) over the December 2011 quarter to be up 8.9 per cent (5 points) when compared to the December 2010 quarter,” the report said.
It found that Canberrans had to pay $3288 a month in mortgage repayments – the equal second highest with Perth after Sydney’s $3635.
This meant 1.7 average full-time wages were needed to service a mortgage on a median-priced home in the ACT. This is slightly better than the 1.8 incomes needed nationally.
