50,000 investors in mortgage stress put their tenants in precarious position
There are 50,000 households that face high housing cost burdens themselves, following the pandemic, who also own a private investment property.
There are 956,000 households living in housing affordability Stress (HAS) in Australia, according to a new AHURI report that looked into the impact of COVID-19, with Commonwealth rent assistance (CRA) reducing the number to 758,000.
The situation of the 50,000 was "cause for concern given that private renters have been disproportionately affected by the downturn," the report noted after modelling from the University of Adelaide and Curtin University.
There is considerable potential for highly leveraged households owning an investment property, who are spending a higher proportion of their incomes on their own housing costs, to run into trouble meeting those costs and/or the servicing of their investment loan commitments, it noted.
"We estimate that there are around 37,500 mortgage home owners living in HAS who also own an investment property, and approximately 12,000 private renters in a similar position."
It is estimated that the overall number of households living with HAS would have risen to 1,336,000 (from the 758,000 baseline) without the JobKeeper and JobSeeker interventions.
