Mortgage Repayments Ease From Their 2024 Peak, RBA Data Show

Scheduled repayments took 9.4% of household disposable income in the March quarter of 2026, down from a 10.1% peak in mid-2024,¹ though the RBA has raised rates four times in 2026.¹

Updated 4 October 2026: source links that no longer worked (an RBA lending page, the ASX rate indicator and an OECD data page) now open the current pages. Correction, 4 October 2026: removed statements that repayments were growing in nominal terms and that mortgage debt was already elevated in May 2022, which our data do not cover. Source links now open the specific releases cited. Correction, 4 October 2026: an earlier version described the rate rises since 2022 as one tightening cycle adding 450 basis points; the 2022-23 cycle took the cash rate to 4.35 per cent, followed by cuts in 2025 and rises in 2026. It also said the dwelling stock value series reflects what sold; it values the whole housing stock. Correction: an earlier version of this article said mortgage repayments had reached a record 50.8 per cent of median family income. That figure came from an industry affordability index. The official measure, the RBA's housing loan repayments to household disposable income, peaked at 10.1 per cent in mid-2024 and has since eased. The article has been rewritten on official data and every figure re-checked.

Scheduled mortgage repayments took 9.4% of household disposable income in the March quarter of 2026, down from a peak of 10.1% in the June quarter of 2024.¹

The burden eased while the RBA cut rates through 2025, and remains well above pre-tightening levels.¹ Two of this year's four rate increases came after the latest reading. The RBA lifted its cash rate by a net 450 basis points from its pandemic-era low of 0.1%¹ to 4.6% as of 30 September 2026,¹ compressing household budgets faster than wages have been able to adjust.

The total value of Australia's residential dwelling stock fell to A$12,689 billion in the June quarter of 2026,² down from A$12,723 billion in the March quarter.² That quarterly decline follows a sustained rise: stock value had climbed from A$11,409 billion in the March quarter of 2025² to the March 2026 peak before slipping back.²

Outstanding household credit reached A$2,568 billion in June 2026,⁶ up from A$2,487 billion in December 2025.⁶ Households still entering the market are borrowing at some of the highest carrying costs in the current cycle, amplifying the repayment burden for every new buyer.¹

Australia carries a household debt-to-income ratio of 223%,³ placing it third among OECD economies in 2024, behind Norway at 236% and Switzerland at 224%.³ At that level of leverage, a rise in the interest rate transmits rapidly into repayment costs, far faster than house prices can fall to compensate.

Wages are not closing the gap. The Wage Price Index rose 3.2% in the year to June 2026,⁴ while headline CPI inflation ran at 3.94% over the same period and the trimmed mean, the RBA's preferred measure of underlying inflation, at 3.6%.⁵ Wage growth trails headline inflation by 0.74 percentage points, so the income available to service debt is shrinking in real terms even as interest rates rise.^4,5

The current affordability squeeze has its origins in the RBA's emergency rate settings during the pandemic, when the cash rate was held at 0.1%¹ and household borrowing surged. The bank began lifting rates in May 2022.¹ The 450 basis points of net tightening from that pandemic low to 4.6% as of September 2026¹ passed through largely to variable-rate borrowers, who make up a substantial share of Australia's mortgage market.¹

The RBA's repayment-to-income series uses household disposable income as its denominator. Other organisations use Average Weekly Earnings, a broader and typically higher figure, which produces a different repayment ratio for the same period. Readers should note which income measure underlies any affordability headline before drawing comparisons across sources.

Separately, the A$34 billion quarterly fall in total dwelling stock value² is a decline of roughly 0.3% on a A$12.7 trillion base: modest in proportional terms. The series values the whole housing stock, not only the homes that sold.

The RBA's cash rate stood at 4.6% as of 30 September 2026,¹ and the bank will publish updated assessments of the inflation and wages outlook in coming months. The pace and timing of any rate relief will determine how quickly repayment burdens ease.

The ABS will release the next dwelling stock value update for the September quarter of 2026, which will show whether the decline extends to a second consecutive quarter.²

The data present an uncommon combination: a housing market where aggregate prices are retreating while the cost of carrying a mortgage remains well above pre-tightening levels. The rate cycle has made the repayment burden the defining constraint, not the price tag.

Just saying.

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