Reserve Bank: New figures show huge jump in homeowners falling behind on mortgage repayments

The number of Australian homeowners falling behind on their mortgage repayments has nearly doubled in some hard-hit suburbs, with new data revealing the scale of the financial nightmare being endured by some people after the Reserve Bank’s 13 rate hikes.

Within a year, the share of homeowners who are 90 days behind on their repayments — a tell-tale sign of mortgage pain — has almost doubled in some parts of the country, according to official data from the Reserve Bank of Australia.

NSW borrowers are falling behind in repayments faster than any other state, with the share of those in arrears rising more than 83 per cent in 12 months — from 0.31 to 0.57 per cent in 2024.

Victoria, however, has the most borrowers in arrears, at 0.67 per cent — up 81 per cent from 2023.

Western Australian homeowners are faring only slightly better than their East Coast counterparts, with 0.62 per cent in arrears (up 44 per cent from 2023).

While the rise in missed repayments in the Northern Territory is lower, at just over one per cent, it still claims the crown as the worst place for homeowners falling behind on their mortgage repayments, at 0.74 per cent.

“What these new RBA numbers reveal is that many Australians are now unable to meet their monthly mortgage repayments and that is because the Albanese Government cannot control its homegrown inflation, leaving the RBA to do the heavy lifting with rates rises,” Mr Smith said.

He said the blame for this crisis lay squarely on the federal government’s shoulders.

“This is a crisis brought on by Labor’s economic mismanagement — and Australians are hurting as a result.”

Mr Smith also obtained data on the regions with the highest share of borrowers with a “high mortgage burden” — those who are spending more than 30 per cent of their income on repayments and are in the lowest income quartile.

While the figures revealed that regional and remote areas, particularly in NSW and Queensland, had consistently struggled with making mortgage repayments since 2023, those in metropolitan areas were spending more of their income to meet repayments.

In Melbourne, one in six homeowners across almost a dozen suburbs — including Tullamarine, Broadmeadows, Brimbank, Dandenong, Melton and Bacchus Marsh, Whittlesea and Wallan, were struggling under the mortgage burden.

One in six homeowners in the Sydney suburbs of Auburn and Merrylands are also struggling.

Things are also dire for one in five homeowners on Norfolk Island, where the mortgage burden is high.

The RBA figures come amid an ongoing political row over inflation and interest rates that erupted after Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the central bank was “smashing the economy”.

Dr Chalmers stood by those comments again on Sunday, saying the “factual point” was borne out by the sluggish economic growth figures released last week.

However, he would not endorse his old boss Wayne Swan’s withering attack on the RBA, in which the former treasurer accused the bank of “punching itself in the face” and putting economic dogma ahead of rational economic decision-making.

“I don’t second guess the Reserve Bank in the way that Wayne has,” Dr Chalmers said.

Dr Chalmers insisted the Government and RBA’s interests were “aligned” as he backed the bank’s goal of returning inflation to the 2-3 per cent target range.

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said Dr Chalmers was a “desperate treasurer” who was trying to shift blame for high inflation.

“He’s fighting everybody except for his homegrown inflation,” he said.

The blame game will do nothing to ease the pressure on the increasing number of households struggling to make repayments on time.

WA Treasurer Rita Saffioti on Sunday joined growing calls for the RBA to cut interest rates, which sits at 4.35 per cent.