Property information group RP Data said more Australia homes are now with negative equity which means more and more Australia home owners are facing the situation that the value of their property is less than the outstanding balance on their home loan.
New home owners fared the worst in the report with those owning a home between one and two years, holding about 27 per cent of the total of properties in negative equity in the December 2011 quarter. By comparison, only about one per cent of owners holding their property for between nine and ten years reported negative equity on their homes.
RP Data showed that Far North Queensland had the highest proportion of mortgages in negative equity, at 22 per cent, followed by Gold Coast, with 19.4 per cent in the quarter.
Sunshine Coast was in the third spot at 15.3 per cent. The area with the lowest amount of negative equity was Loddon, Victoria with 1.9 per cent meeting the definition, followed by Canberra with 2 per cent.
By city, Brisbane fared the worst with 9.2 per cent of property deemed to be “underwater” in financial terms, followed by fellow mining state capital Perth at 7.4 per cent.
Sydney had 3.6 per cent of properties in negative equity, pipping Melbourne with a 3.5 per cent rate. In Hobart, 6.2 per cent of properties were in negative equity, compared with 5.5 per cent for Adelaide.