How long does it really take to save for a mortgage deposit on an Australian home?

Young couples hoping to buy in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane now have an easier time saving for a mortgage deposit than it did a year ago.

The Reserve Bank’s severe rate hikes have reduced the ability of banks to lend, reducing options for the average full-time worker earning $94,000.

But real estate group Domain calculated that this had also reduced the time needed to save for a 20 percent mortgage deposit for young couples buying together on two incomes.

‘Previously, lower interest rates greatly benefited mortgage holders, making it cheaper to borrow and repay a home loan. However, it was a key driver of price growth that lengthened the time to save a deposit,” he said in his 2023 First Home Buyer Report.

“This perspective changed when the RBA embarked on one of the most aggressive rate hike cycles in history, raising the cash rate to over a decade.”

Sydney’s median home price of $1.2 million is still very expensive, and the US think tank Demographia ranked it the second most unaffordable city in the world after Hong Kong.

This is despite CoreLogic data showing a 14.7 percent drop over the past year, as the Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates 10 times to an 11-year high of 3.6 percent.

This meant that young couples, aged 25-34, had seen their time to save for a deposit in Sydney fall to six years and eight months, down from eight years and one month in April 2022, when the cash rate of the RBA was still at a record. minimum of 0.1 percent.

But if a couple were willing to buy a house in St Marys, Sydney’s west, that time to save for a deposit was reduced to five years and seven months.

Young couples, aged 25-34, had seen their time to save for a deposit in Sydney fall to six years and eight months, from eight years and one month in April 2022, when the RBA cash rate was still it was at a record low of 0.1 percent (homes in Oran Park pictured)

That was based on buying an entry-level home in a suburb where $735,110 was the midpoint.

In Melbourne, where the median home price was $897,222, the time to save for a deposit fell to five years and seven months, down from six years and six months, following an 11.2% decline in the year to February.

If they bought in Sunbury, that dropped to four years and nine months in this western suburb where $640,640 was the median home price.

In Brisbane, where the median home price was $761,781, the time to save for a deposit has fallen to four years and five months, down from five years and two months, after an 8.6% drop.

But in Ipswich, that comes down to three years and nine months in a satellite city where the median home price was $509,321.

In Brisbane, where the median home price was $761,781, the time to save for a deposit has fallen to four years and five months, down from five years and two months, after an 8.6% drop. But in Ipswich (Springfield, pictured), that comes down to three years and nine months in a satellite city where the median home price was $509,321.

In Adelaide, it would take a couple four years and nine months to save for a mortgage deposit, virtually unchanged from four years and 10 months in April 2022, as the median house price in the city increased by 4. 3% up to $694,653.

But if they bought in the Playford council area of ​​Adelaide’s outer north, that dropped to three years and five months, where $350,904 was the median price of a house in Davoren Park.

In Perth, it would take a couple three years and seven months, almost unchanged from three years and nine months nearly a year ago in a city where the median home price was $587,274 after an annual growth of 2. 6%

But in Armadale, that was reduced to two years and 10 months in a suburb where $325,711 was the average price in the outer southeast of the city.