New reports have shown that Australian families are struggling to make rental payments in the financial crisis, with many being laid off from their jobs and evicted from their houses.
More than 7600 people have lost their homes in NSW while a further 28,000 are struggling to meet repayments and are flocking to the NSW Government for financial aid.
Housing Minister David Borger said yesterday that the number of homeless families had increased 51 percent, the majority of those occurring in the Western suburbs of Sydney.
This news comes after the Commonwealth Bank released a report, conducted by RP Data Information Services of the most affordable suburbs to buy as opposed to rent across the country.
In NSW, there are 29 suburbs where it is cheaper to buy than rent, 18 of those in the Sydney metro area. Rosehill was listed as the most affordable suburb in NSW, with monthly mortgage repayments (on average) $500 less than rental payments.
According to RP Data national research director Tim Lawless, the property market has shifted rapidly in the past couple of months and it is now more affordable to buy than rent.
“During 2008 Australian experienced some fundamental shifts in it’s property market where we saw falls in property values, interest rates dropped to a 45 year low, and weekly rents increased dramatically.”
“Now many renters are doing their sums to work out whether paying off a mortgage is going to be cheaper than paying a landlord”, he said.
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