Housing strong as relief calls increase

COMMONWEALTH Bank is confident of continued strength in the housing market despite hundreds more borrowers requesting relief each day as lockdowns grip the nation.

The lender is fielding almost 2000 calls a week from borrowers seeking home loan relief.

CBA group executive retail banking Angus Sullivan said almost 7000 borrowers had deferred their home loans during this latest period of lockdowns gripping the east coast, in a “good indicator of the strength of the economy as a whole”.

Almost 88,000 CBA customers have now accessed home loan support, with 60 per cent of calls coming from NSW as the state struggles under ever increasing case numbers.

“We can see the overweighting of some of those challenged LGAs in Sydney,” Mr Sullivan said. He noted the data was also skewed towards borrowers working in retail and construction, with the two-week moratorium on construction work in Sydney spurring a spate of calls.

“At the time what we heard was ‘I’m going to be OK for a couple of weeks but if it goes a lot longer than that it’s going to get really tricky for me’.”

Mr Sullivan said the recent imposition of lockdowns in Queensland had seen daily calls spike from its existing level of 200 per day.

The Australian Banking Association reported on August 6 that 20,000 borrowers had received hardship assistance during the latest lockdowns, including 15,000 who had deferred home or business loans.

The extent of the impact of the latest outbreaks of Covid that have extended to regional NSW and the nation’s capital is unclear. But ABA chief executive Anna Bligh said banks would continue to offer support to “those doing it tough”.

Despite the challenges, Mr Sullivan said CBA was confident house prices would lift another 3-4 per cent this year.