Housing October 2007

Lachlan Heywood
John McCarthy

Queensland’s “battler enclaves” are among the hardest hit by Australia’s housing affordability crisis.
Voters in Bowman, Dickson, Moreton and Petrie are forking out more than $1300 in average monthly mortgage repayments.
In Bonner – repayments are $1440; in the Longman (Caboolture) households are spending more than 30 per cent of their wage on meeting mortgage repayments – the official definition of “housing stress”.
The latest home loan lending figures, also released yesterday, reflect a continuing gap between housing supply and demand.
Harley Dale, the Housing Industry Association’s chief economist, said the established housing market was on the “up and up”, although the same could not be said for new construction.
In Queensland, it is estimated 300,000 households are under housing “stress” and the number of properties being built fails to keep pace with demand.
During a marathon Coalition meeting Canberra last month, MP’s proposed increasing the $7000 first homebuyers grant and allowing first homebuyers to sacrifice salary or tap into their super for a home deposit.
In Queensland the average mortgage has gone up 12 per cent in the past nine months to $318,000

Peter’s Note
Government intervention cannot correct the underlying market factors, -: Resources and Jobs Boom; Natural population increase and migration; Lifestyle options with great sunny weather and ever increasing new single households. Wages will increase – inflation will increase – The property prices will increase.