Australian prime home loan arrears rose year on year in July but remained unchanged month on month, according to a recently published report from S&P Global Ratings. The Standard & Poor’s Performance Index (SPIN) for Australian prime mortgages, which has been steady at 1.38% since May, was up from 1.17% a year earlier. Arrears typically have decreased month on month in July for the past five years.
Arrears movements were mixed nationwide, according to the report, titled “RMBS Arrears Statistics: Australia.” New South Wales reported a month-on-month increase in mortgage arrears in both percentage and dollar terms, while in Victoria there was a decline in loans more than 30 days in arrears. Arrears remained at a record high in Western Australia, but the Northern Territory took the nation’s top spot again in July, with arrears at 2.67%. Australian RMBS portfolios’ exposure to the Northern Territory is minimal, at just under 1%.
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David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
