Housing out of reach for young couples

Young couples would seriously struggle to buy Auckland's lowest-priced houses. Picture / Michael Craig

Auckland housing is now the most unaffordable it's been since the Home Loan Affordability report began in 2004.

Interest.co.nz's Home Loan Affordability report for March showed first home buyers aged between 25-29 years would have to spend more than 50 per cent of their salary on a mortgage.

The average lower-quartile selling price hit a record high of $735,200 in Auckland this month, meaning a young couple earning a combined income of $1605.90 a week would need to pay $804.86 per week for their mortgage, 50.12 per cent of their income.

That's if they can afford the deposit.

Interest.co.nz calculates that a couple saving 20 per cent of their net income for four years in an interest-earning bank account would, after four years, have $73,319 - giving them access to 9.98 per cent of Auckland's lower-quartile selling price.

"So not only would couples earning average wages struggle to afford the mortgage payments on a cheaper home in Auckland, they would also have to raise a sufficient deposit, and that in turn means they could struggle to find a bank willing to provide them with a mortgage, even if they believed they could afford the repayments," the report said.

"This combination of factors is why so many younger people in Auckland appear to be giving up on the prospect of ever owning their own home and resigning themselves to the prospect of renting for the rest of their lives."

The report shows Auckland moved into being unaffordable for the first-home buyer in October 2014, meaning housing went from affordable to severely unaffordable in less than three years.

"It is not something people could have planned for," the report stated.

The report also carried a sober message for those who borrowed heavily to get into a home, saying they now face a rising interest-rate tide.

"The problems that have been created in Auckland's housing market are now long-term and structural," the report said.

"They are beyond the quick fix of policies that fiddle at the margins of the problem."