By Alesha Capone
Wyndham recorded the highest number of deferred mortgages in the nation during the middle of the year, according to credit reporting agency Equifax.
The agency has released figures showing that around 5000 Wyndham property owners were granted a mortgage deferral in May.
The municipality of Wanneroo, in Perth’s northern suburbs, placed second on the list with more than 4000 mortgage deferrals.
The Equifax analysis, which was based on credit history, repayment information and Australian Bureau of Statistics data available in May, was released last month.
Several of Melbourne’s other outer suburban areas recorded a high number of mortgage deferrals, including Tullamarine-Broadmeadows, Casey South, Whittlesea-Wallan and Melton-Bacchus Marsh.
Equifax advisory and solutions general manager Kevin James said the financial difficulty experienced in these regions could be attributed to a higher prevalence of lower socio-economic suburbs, with low-income households and young people just starting out on the property ladder.
“COVID-19 is having a particularly negative effect on the employment of young people,” Mr James said.
“For those without significant savings, it isn’t easy to service a home loan when cash flow dries up.
“We know Melbourne’s second lockdown will have further exacerbated the difficulties we’ve seen in our initial analysis on the available May data.
“Equifax will be closely monitoring this over the coming months to identify new hotspots.”
Mr James said Australians aged 36 to 45 years old were the most likely age group to defer their mortgage repayments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There are more middle-aged people seeking mortgage payment relief than any other age group,” he said.
“This group is likely to have relatively high outstanding mortgage balances and may have been harder hit with business lay-offs or lower income from JobKeeper payments.”
The age group with the least number of mortgage deferrals was 56 to 65 year olds.
