Areas such as western Sydney are facing rising numbers of repossessions after borrowers, having taken out large mortgages to purchase their homes, have found that property prices have fallen to such an extent that they're unable to clear their debts by selling up.
ALLEN DIAZLI has seen homeowners come and go over the past 17 years in the mortgage belt of Sydney.
He's one of the Sheriff's men in Bankstown, the officers responsible for carrying out repossession orders for banks and mortgage brokers.
Since January, he and his colleagues have been repossessing an average 15 homes a week, more than three times the number they were doing three years ago. "This is crazy," he says. "We don't need any statistics to know how bad mortgage stress is for people. We've got a whiteboard that we fill out and it's been chock-a-block for months."
The RBA has warned of more borrowers falling behind on their mortgage repayments in the future and that there is a greater risk of losing the family home partly because people have taken out mortgages with non-traditional lenders more likely to foreclose quickly.
Join the discussion on Repossessions
|