Mobaraka Mohammadi says she works 12 hours a day just to make ends meet and pay off her mortgage.
Ms Mohammadi, 23, from northern Adelaide, told the ABC she might have to stop university to pick up more hours if her mortgage repayments and living costs increased further.
“I was actually trying to cut a few of my hours so I can concentrate on my study but … if I cut any hours, I’m not going to be able to pay my mortgage,” she said.
Her home cost her $390,000 and mortgage repayments were originally $750 a month.
But amid the latest interest rate increases, Ms Mohammadi’s repayments jumped to $940.
“If the interest is going to go higher than this, [it] means I’ll have to quit my study and I have been thinking about it because I can’t juggle full-time study and full-time work.”
Rising grocery costs and other expenses have compounded her situation and forced her to budget for the first time.
“I’ve never had that issue … but now I do budget. Every week [when] I get my pay slip I’m like OK, this much is going to the home loan, and then that much is going to go to bills, and $50 is going to go to my petrol.”
She has cut back on socialising and online shopping to help find some savings.
Australians having to make ‘hard calls’
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) increased the cash rate by 25 basis points again last month to bring it to 3.1 per cent.
Mortgage broker Gracious Chidhakwa told the ABC some households had already started missing their repayments, and she warned the full effect of the rate rises would not be felt for some time yet.
“We are now seeing some missing their repayments, some are coming back to us saying, ‘look, can we refinance as soon as possible’, or some are having to sell because they may not be able to afford that property anymore,” Ms Chidhakwa said.
She said low rental vacancies combined with higher interest rates were forcing rental prices up because landlords were passing on interest rate rises to their renters.
“Those who are wanting mortgages, some are having to sell, some are having to downsize, some are having to make those hard calls,” Ms Chidhakwa said.
“Some are having to make some significant cuts, [whether] that’s stopping their children from going to private schooling, put their children back into public schools just to make ends meet.”
Ali Kawser, mortgage broker and owner of AK Home Loans based in the west of Melbourne, told the ABC that some aspiring home owners who secured house and land packages last year did not want to proceed.
“Most of them are first home buyers, they are not investors yet so they didn’t have mortgage stress but the current rate stress … because of that, they are not getting in the market at the moment, or very few of them are getting in,” Mr Kawser said.
“They don’t know about the future … whatever plans they had … it’s all cancelled,” he said.
“Twelve months ago we told them everything is fine, yes you can borrow that much and everything will be fine, we’re happy, but 12 months later we are apologising to them.”
Bracing for the end of a fixed rate
David Lin is anxiously watching Australia’s mortgage rate rises and considering whether he will have to take up another job soon.
Mr Lin, a Melburnian in his 30s, had his mortgage rate fixed before the pandemic but that will expire next year, meaning if rates stay where they are, he could be forced to pay an extra $300 to $400 every month.
“It’s bearable. [But] an increased mortgage is more stressful for a single person,” Mr Lin, who works in e-commerce, said.
