NSW first home buyer numbers dip to 2.2%: AFG

NSW first home buyer numbers dip to 2.2%: AFG
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020

Mortgage broker AFG processed 10,463 loans last month - the highest in its 21-year history - but overall first home buyer loans fell to 7.2%.

In New South Wales, the figure was a woeful 2.2%.

“First home buyer loans have fallen to unprecedented lows in places like NSW,” said AFG’s general manager of sales and operations Mark Hewitt.

“If this continues we are going to end up with a whole generation of renters.”

The October mortgages processed by AFG brokers for first home buyers fell from its previous September record low of 8.4% of all home loans to 7.2% nationally.

The first home buyer loans have declined each month since June this year when they represented 10.8% of all home loans processed. 

New South Wales was followed by Queensland (4.7%), South Australia (7.3%), Victoria (8.3%) and Western Australia (17.9%).

AFG calculated that excluding WA from the equation, the average level of first home buying on the eastern seaboard would be around 5% - about a third of the long-term average.

Nationally, investor home loans represent 38.7% of all mortgages processed, down from a peak of 40.3% recorded last month.

Hewitt noted October had traditionally been one of the strongest months for property with an increase in owner occupier loans. 

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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