People thinking of buying a new house in Hobart are no longer smiling with happiness. People thinking of buying a house can now no longer afford to do so. Affordability figures for the June quarter is the most dismal one in decades. The figures were released by the Housing Industry Association. The figures show that in Hobart there is a marginal increase in the average monthly repayment to $258,000. On the other hand, in regional centres, one can see a drop of 5 points. The figure put forward by the Housing Industry Association are an eye-opener for people according to Stuart Clues, who is from the industry. He believes that today the situation is much worse than it was a year ago when comparison is done between household income and mortgage repayments.

In such situation one needs to think if the future generations earning middle- and low-income will be able to come up with the money to buy a home if housing costs increases more rapidly than incomes. If one moves beyond Hobart- around the Tasmania area there is a little relief as in these regional centres there is a drop. In these regional centres prices have been stuck for the past one year thus it is affordable to invest in houses here. In scenarios where people have to invest in a home miles from their work place, they will have to commute longer distance from home to work. Stuart Clue is of the opinion that Government needs to play an important role Housing Industry. More initiatives are needed from the government to protect the interest of the people who are looking forward to invest in a house.

The proposal of a shared equity scheme will be a wonderful idea where the government puts in fifty thousand dollars which makes it easy for young people to invest in the housing industry. The housing industry association is doing the best try to work with all the levels of the government to realize this scheme into a reality. Making sure that the scheme does not just remain a policy. The banks can also do much to ease the burden of their clients. Any reduction in rates can be passed on to the clients. This policy of the bank will help people looking for mortgages. Mr. Clue says that today the situation is such that people no longer have the capacity or the interest to invest in the housing industry as within a year they have seen twelve consecutive rises in interest rates. People are wary of seeking loans to invest in houses. Such a situation has put a great pressure on the rental market. The vacancy rate has now come down to just ½ percent.