Mortgage stress hits Western Sydney hard

By From: AAP, 12 October 2010

MORTGAGE stress in Australia is felt greatest in the suburbs, with borrowers in suburban Sydney feeling the most pressure.

Global ratings agency Moody's said a review of 750,000 mortgages revealed the performance of mortgages deteriorated as the location of borrowers moved outward from city centres.

It found the poorest performing regions in Australia were around Sydney's southwest, including Fairfield, Liverpool, Macquarie Fields, Minto and Campbelltown.

These regions showed between 2.5 per cent and 2.77 per cent of borrowers failed to make one or more mortgage payments, making them more than 30 days delinquent. Delinquencies in the Fairfield-Liverpool region were double the national average.

But borrowers in Melbourne and Brisbane were much more relaxed, with the collateral performance of mortgages strong, Moody's said.

Melbourne's regions were better than the national average, with mortgages performing well Moody's said.

Senior analyst Arthur Karabatsos said research results from March would probably still be applicable today.

"Between March and October I don't expect any significant changes to these trends," he said.

"The closer to the CBD (central business district), they tend to perform better than further out of the CBD. That won't change."