Buyers take more than a decade to save for a mortgage – PEXA Buyer Deposits Report CY24
By PEXA - 1 April 2025
Melbourne, Australia: Housing affordability remains acute across Australia even as interest rates begin to ease, with the latest PEXA Buyer Deposit CY24 report showing ever-increasing house prices remain a significant barrier for home ownership for many households.
PEXA, the ASX-listed digital property exchange platform and property insights solutions business, has compiled exclusive analysis of property settlement data across NSW, Victoria and Queensland from January 2020 to December 2024.
The research highlighted that the deposit gap is one of the main barriers to home ownership with data showing that for individual buyers in NSW, it can take up to 20 years to save for a median house deposit (without family financial assistance). In Victoria, time to save is between 9-17 years and in Queensland 10-20 years.
The report includes an analysis of suburbs with the highest average loan-to-valuation ratios (LVRs)1, which reveals a trend in NSW and Queensland for cheaper homes in the regions as buyers unable to afford property in the major cities look for cheaper entries to the housing market.
In NSW, the extreme nature of the Sydney housing market makes first home buyers desperate to move elsewhere. Every year, Sydney records a net migration outflow of around 20,000 to 30,000 people moving to regional New South Wales.
Growing suburbs in Melbourne’s outer suburbs feature heavily in the top 10 LVR list.
PEXA’s Chief Economist Julie Toth said: “This PEXA data shows the broader housing market remains under pressure and reveals a persistent wealth divide. Areas with high LVRs are often dominated by first-home buyers unable to meet the high deposit requirements. Regional towns show a high proportion of loans with LVRs above 80%, further stressing the difficulties faced by those trying to enter the market, especially in the capital cities where affordable housing remains scarce. The current election campaign focus on housing affordability reflects the reality of the pressure Australian home buyers and young families in particular are facing.”
Ms Toth added that many first-home buyers were being locked out of the more desirable inner-city suburbs, where affordability continues to be a barrier.
The PEXA Buyer Deposits data examines the corresponding loan amounts with a lender upon property settlement and assumes the difference between the total value of the property settled and the loan amount is the deposit actually paid by the buyer (instead of assuming all buyers pay a 20% deposit).
The full report is available here:
1 Calculated by comparing the loan amount used to fund the purchase of a property against the total sale price