Brisbane is challenging Sydney as Australia's least affordable city as rising interest rates push housing affordability around the country to its worst level in 24 years.
Brisbane and Canberra were the cities hardest hit in the March quarter, according to the Housing Industry Association-Commonwealth Bank First Home Buyer Affordability Index. It shows buying a home in either city now takes a bigger chunk of household income than at any time in the past.
HIA policy chief executive Chris Lamont said it would take up to two years before home owners felt any respite from the affordability crisis.
Interest rates rose 0.8 percentage points in the March quarter because of two Reserve Bank increases and banks separately lifting their mortgage rates, hesaid.
The index hit its fourth consecutive record low as a result, the HIA said.
The HIA-CBA Index, based on the bank's new home loans, fell 15.2 per cent for Brisbane in the three months to the end of March, with the average loan repayment increasing 18.9 per cent to $3578 a month for the city.
In Sydney, the index improved by 4.1 per cent, with the average mortgage repayment $3064 a month.
Of the 13 cities and regional areas covered by the index, Sydney was the only city where buying a house became more affordable during the March quarter, while affordability for Hobart was unchanged.
