First home buyers dominate property market after 10 years

REIA president Adrian Kelly said that a combination of factors meant that housing affordability has benefitted those who entered the market during the September 2020 quarter.

In fact, market entry has experienced its largest year-on-year increase since 2009 and largest quarterly increase since 2010, with a September quarter rise of 36.1 per cent.

First home buyers now make up 40.8 per cent of the owner-occupied dwelling market.

“This is particularly good news given the large challenges faced by tenants at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mr Kelly said.

Further, the report noted that the average loan size to first home buyers decreased to $406,223, a decrease of 5.4 per cent over the quarter but an increase of 0.8 per cent over the past 12 months.

Ultimately, Mr Kelly believes that these results are reflective of how first home buyers are responding to the stable market and record-low interest rates.

The report showed that Australian families experienced a small income increase of 0.5 per cent, while the average loan repayment decreased by 2.5 per cent.

For home owners, affordability improved, with income to loan repayments decreasing 1.1 percentage points to 33.9 per cent over the quarter.

Meanwhile, for renters, affordability declined in the September quarter and over the past year, with the proportion of income required to meet rent payments increasing by 0.4 percentage points to 23.7 per cent. This is mainly attributed to the increase in rents in a number of capital cities.

Moving forward, Mr Kelly said that banks could do more to further improve affordability by passing on in full interest cuts and help even more Australians buy homes.