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South Burnett buyers saving up a deposit for their first home can do so in less than half the time Brisbane buyers can, according to a new study by Bankwest

December 7, 2017

While annual wages for South Burnett couples are on average $28,000 lower Brisbane couples, South Burnett buyers saving up a deposit on their first home can do so in less than half the time.

The surprise result comes from the 9th annual Bankwest First Time Buyer Report, which tracks the time it would take first home buyers to save a deposit for a home in 421 local government areas (LGAs) across Australia.

The report quantifies how long it would take a first time buyer to save a 20 per cent deposit based on local incomes, local house prices and assistance from the First Home Owners Grant, where available.

The insights in the report have been based on data from CoreLogic, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the 2011 and 2016 Census, and the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Deposit saving times have been calculated on the basis of a first time buyer couple setting aside 20 per cent of their combined pre-tax income annually.

It assumes their savings are deposited into an online savings account each month and earn interest on that basis.

The latest report found that in June 2017, Brisbane couples with a combined pre-tax income of $124,483 would take an average 5.1 years to save a deposit for a median price home in Brisbane.

And couples wanting to secure a median priced home in Noosa would need to wait as long as 6.3 years to put their deposit together.

But South Burnett couples with a combined income of $96,165 could secure a median priced local home in just 2.27 years.

The South Burnett also compared favourably against our near neighbours in the Lockyer Valley, Gympie, Ipswich, Toowoomba and Bundaberg, who would all need to spend between 3.07 and 3.4 years saving a deposit for their first home.

Only Western Downs (2 years) and the North Burnett (1.88 years) would see couples into their first home sooner … and not by very much.

The report found that Australia’s least affordable LGAs for first home buyers are Peppermint Grove in Western Australia (21.2 years) and Mosman in Sydney’s leafy north shore (20.4 years).

It also found that on average, first home buyers in Melbourne and Sydney now have to spend between 5.4 and 6 years saving for a deposit.

The South Burnett compares very favourably with our neighbours for young people wanting to get a foot on the property ladder in the shortest amount of time

 

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