The level of non-performing mortgages across the banking industry hit a record of $21.3 billion in March 2024, quarterly APRA data yesterday shows.
The level of problem mortgage loans has soared by 52 per cent over the year to March, and must be getting still worse, given restrictive monetary policy settings.
This trend is most pronounced among loans to owner-occupiers, with the level of problem loans up by close to 60 per cent, over the 15 months to March 2024.
As a proportion of total mortgage credit problem loans are immaterial, and in fact a little lower than they were in 2020.
On the other hand, APRA put aggregate balances in offset accounts at March at $272 billion, up from $246 billion a year earlier, which is one measure of savings behaviour by households with mortgages..
Offset balances have increased by $100 billion over five years.
Loans classed as mortgagee in possession are broadly stable, at only $276 million of such loans across the industry at the end of March.
APRA put the number of home loans 30 days or more in arrears at March 2024 at $14.7 billion across the sector. This number is up by more than 40 per cent over a year.
Arrears now stand at 0.66 per cent of all mortgage credit outstanding, but “this is still, on average, below what it was in the year before Covid (2019) at 0.73 per cent” analysis by RateCity shows.
Non-performing commercial property exposures, in Australia, have doubled to $2.6 billion.