How many hours do you need to work to afford your home?
Hefty mortgage repayments come as no surprise to many Australians who are facing the constantly increasing real estate prices. Based on the 2016 Census, the average Australian spends around 28% of their monthly household income to repay their mortgage. However, does the average Australian accurately represent home owners across each state and territory?
Here at Edstart, we have looked into each state and territory’s median monthly mortgage repayment and household income to gauge the level of financial burden that a mortgage places on homeowners across the entire country.
Housing affordability varies across the country
As expected, Sydney residents come out on top with 29% of their household income being taken up by mortgage repayments. This can be attributed to the fact that they have one of the highest monthly repayments but only the 3rd highest household income.
Darwin and ACT home owners are the luckiest with monthly mortgage repayments accounting for only 23% of the household income.
For a more refreshing perspective on this topic, we have calculated how many hours a resident in each state will have to work each month in order to meet their mortgage repayments.
Surprisingly, those from Perth and Sydney both have to work 43 hours each month. This may be caused by the lower household income of a Perth resident by almost $500 but an almost identical median monthly mortgage repayment with Sydney.
Clearly, a large share of many Australian wallets are being eaten up by mortgage repayments. What’s worse is that some home owners in certain areas have to work a little longer to afford their dream home.
For those who want to find out more, here is a summary of the information gathered on mortgage repayments in Australia compared against household income:
| Capital Cities | Median monthly mortgage repayment | Median monthly household income | # of hours of work to repay monthly mortgage | % of income spent on monthly mortgage |
|---|---|---|---|---|