Brighter Selling

8 per cent of Aussie mortgage holders have no real equity

by Karleen Jentz, Copywriter 3 November 2017

Aussies are clocking up higher levels of household debt than ever before. That’s not necessarily a bad thing if you have a healthy set of assets to show for it.

But new research shows the proportion of Aussies with little or no equity in their homes is rising.

This means the value of the loan is the same or greater than the value of their property. This is a problem should the mortgage holder be forced to sell their home because they could be left out of pocket.

The research shows that 345,000 Australian mortgage holders, or 8 per cent, have little or no equity in their homes. At the same time last year, the rate was 7.1 per cent.

Western Australia’s mortgage holders are most at risk with 14 per cent having little or no equity, while Tasmania has the lowest levels with just 4.9 per cent of mortgage holders falling into the equity danger zone.

Overall, it would seem lower value homes are more at risk. Equity poor mortgage holders have much lower average house values ($501,000) compared to all mortgage holders ($761,000).

The results are the findings of Roy Morgan’s Single Source Survey, which is based on over 50,000 interviews, including interviews with more than 10,000 owner-occupier mortgage holders.

Want to put your debt to work in a prime asset? Or ready to cash in your equity? View our current listings for sale or talk to us about selling.