Mortgage-free homeowners across Australia are sitting on an absolute goldmine, a new report shows.
SuburbTrends data reveals the hotspots around the country where cashed-up property owners don’t own a cent on their properties, and how much unencumbered wealth sits in these locales.
That’s great news for them, however SuburbTrends founder Kent Lardner warns there’s a darker side to this story.
Here’s where our most mortgage-free suburbs are in our biggest cities:
ADELAIDE
The mortgage club is one many eagerly anticipate entering, and hope to leave as soon as they can.
A new report by data analysts SuburbTrends has revealed the suburbs with the highest proportion of property owners who have done just that.
Of all suburbs and towns across South Australia, West Lakes, in Adelaide’s western suburbs, has the most mortgage-free privately owned properties.
Carla Fox has recently bought a property in West Lakes and is hoping to pay it off as soon as she can. Picture: Keryn Stevens
Some 53 per cent – or 2811 – of the suburb’s 5298 private dwellings have no money owing on them.
It narrowly edged out Clarendon where 456 or 52 per cent of the suburb’s 884 homes are paid off; One Tree Hill, where 391 or 50 per cent of the suburb’s 779 homes are debt free, and Toorak Gardens where 2783 or 49 per cent of the suburb’s 5712 homes are owned outright.
Report author Kent Lardner said high mortgage-free homeownership can lock younger buyers out of the market.
“Suburbs with high outright ownership tend to have low turnover, reducing housing supply and making it harder for younger and lower-income buyers to enter,” he said.
“Over time, this reinforces wealth divides, as those who own property continue accumulating equity, while renters struggle with rising housing costs.
MELBOURNE
Melbourne homeowners in battler ‘burbs from Thomastown to St Albans, Fawkner and Altona Meadows are among the city’s most likely to have paid off their mortgage.
They rank alongside Brighton, Balwyn and Toorak as having the highest share of mortgage-free residences, according to surprise figures from SuburbTrends.
Some of the city’s most affordable areas, such as Keilor Downs — where a typical house costs $760,000 — have more homeowners without a mortgage than with one — 51 per cent have already paid theirs off.
Flinders has the highest percentage of homeowners in Greater Melbourne to have paid off their home loan, at 64 per cent.
Victoria has a stack of suburbs where the majority of homeowners have paid off their homes. Picture: David Crosling Aerial
The Mornington Peninsula town has 1240 mortgage-free homes, according to SuburbTrends, while PropTrack figures show it has a $4.1m median house price.
The next highest on the SuburbTrends’ list were areas with typical house values below $1m,
including Reservoir’s north west and Taylors Lakes, both at 54 per cent.
More expensive areas such as Brighton, Toorak, Balwyn, Wheelers Hill and Beaumaris had 40 per cent or more mortgage-free households.
SYDNEY
Many of Sydney’s most coveted suburbs have become mortgage-free zones where homeowners are sitting on a gold mine of fully paid off real estate – and it’s spurred a growing divide across the housing market.
Suburbs where the majority of homeowners resided in properties without mortgages included northern beaches enclaves Bayview, Elanora Heights, Avalon and Palm Beach, along with Sutherland Shire suburbs Illawong and Alfords Point.
Other areas where homeowners were more likely to own their properties outright were north shore suburbs Castle Cove, Northbridge, Mosman, Hunters Hill, Woolwich and Turramurra, new SuburbTrends data revealed.
Peter and Corinne Collins paid off their Wahroonga home but plan to downsize to a home in new development The Residences. Picture: Jonathan Ng
Additional areas with a higher than average concentration of unencumbered property wealth were mostly spread across the eastern suburbs, inner west and coastal pockets of the Sutherland Shire.
Homeowners’ collective unencumbered property wealth in many of these suburbs was over $5 billion, largely insulating these owners from the forces plaguing the rest of the market such as higher interest rates.
BRISBANE
The Gold Coast’s mortgage-free homeowners are sitting on a $75.45 billion property goldmine, with new data revealing some unexpected pockets of unencumbered housing wealth across the city.
Yet as these debt-free enclaves grow, young buyers without access to the burgeoning bank of mum and dad are finding it even harder to break into markets dominated by equity-rich owners.
Analysis by SuburbTrends, drawn from Census and current market data, shows 43 per cent of all private dwellings in family-friendly Burleigh Waters are owned outright — totalling an estimated $2.97b in debt-free real estate. That makes it the Gold Coast’s top suburb for mortgage-free housing wealth.
Mortgage-free homeowners across Queensland are sitting on an absolute goldmine. Pic: iStock
Retiree haven Hope Island follows, where 42 per cent of homeowners also have no mortgage, amassing $2.93b in unencumbered value, while in Runaway Bay, 50 per cent of owners were debt-free, amounting to total wealth of $2.21b
Rounding out the top 10 were: Mermaid Waters ($2.58b), Robina East ($2.51b), Palm Beach ($2.5b), Broadbeach Waters ($2.28b), Paradise Point-Hollywell ($2.28b), Surfers Paradise-North ($2.23b), and Tamborine-Canungra ($2.18b).
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