Dubbo buyers are being forced to jump on the property ladder now it is cheaper to own a home than rent one

Having previously paid $450 a week to rent a house in the Dubbo suburb of Southlakes and $380 a week for a West Dubbo property, the couple made the smart financial decision to commit to a mortgage.

According to the 2022 housing affordability report, produced by ANZ and CoreLogic, Dubbo buyers spend an estimated 26.7 per cent of their income on servicing their mortgage while 30.8 percent of a renter's income is required to pay their rent.

The Dubbo couple purchased their $406,000 Elizabeth Street home at a time when it's increasingly difficult for regional home buyers to enter the market.

Mr Fisher said he had long viewed a house as an important asset and was keen to jump on the property ladder as soon as possible.

"Later on down the track you can do with it what you want, and use it to your advantage if you want to invest and purchase more property," he said.

According to the CoreLogic report, housing affordability was worsening at a much faster rate in regional areas than in the capital cities during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dubbo home buyers need to spend an estimated 7.3 years saving their deposit however it only took the young couple three years to save.

"I tend to be really pedantic, especially when it comes to saving," Mr Fisher said.

Mr Fisher said he viewed housing affordability as a key election issue.

"Wages are not going up, interest rates are going up, house prices are going up," he said.

"House [prices] are going up a lot more than what wages are going up so therefore it's making it difficult to save enough."

Mr Fisher advised buyers to investigate their eligibility for the first home loan deposit scheme, where they may be able to significantly reduce the amount of money required for a deposit.

"I feel [the property market] is easing a little bit now but when we tried to purchase a year ago as soon as we got to a house inspection the property was already sold."

The director of Bob Berry Real Estate Jane Donald, who helped Mr Fisher and Miss Howard purchase their home, said it is good to see the couple enjoy the security that owning a home brings.

She said as a result of the high price of renting, and the lack of vacant inventory, she's seeing a lot of first- home buyers trying to enter the market.

"They've done their sums and understand that they will be better off buying a property," she said.

"At open for inspections over the last couple of weeks we've had firs- home buyers telling us they're really trying to get in before interest rates continue to increase.

"The other thing that first home buyers are trying to do is to have some security because when they're renting a property they've got no security with the rent going up, and no security that they can stay there as well."

"If they buy a property they can control their expenses to a some extent; they know what they'll be paying week in/week out and they've got that security of having a home and that's what's missing in regional areas because there is such a shortage of rental properties."

Mrs Donald said many investors are keen to take advantage of the healthy Dubbo market so are selling rather than renting their properties.

With the median house price in Dubbo sitting at $465,000, Mrs Donald said housing was still more affordable in Dubbo than many other regional cities.

She urged eligible buyers to take advantage of government incentives to get into the market.

The CoreLogic report, which covers the 2022 March quarter before interest rate increases earlier this month, shows the median number of years taken to save a 20 per cent deposit has risen by 2.2 years since March, 2020, nationally.

Deteriorating housing affordability in Dubbo is largely inline with what's happening elsewhere in regional Australia, according to the report.

Nationally, the median regional house price was 7.9 times the annual regional household income in March 2022, up from 5.9 times two years ago.

The report also found that it would take 10.5 years for regional households to save enough for a 20 per cent deposit.

Chief among the reasons for the growing unaffordability was an uptick in tree changers who had taken advantage of flexible working policies to relocate to the regions.

With capital city incomes an estimated 32.6 per cent higher than those in the regions, according to ABS data, the report authors said that these buyers enjoyed a considerable affordability advantage over existing regional residents.

"While this [flexible working trend] has created opportunities for remote knowledge workers to consider relatively affordable housing options, it also has the potential to increase price pressures for long-established residents in the regions," they wrote.

The median regional property price is only six times a capital city household income, compared to 8.4 times for median capital city values, meaning regional housing represented significant affordability advantages for buyers who were able to relocate without losing their jobs.

"There is a segment of the workforce that never have to go to the office and so for them, looking [at housing], they are earning perhaps capital city wages but that they could maybe move to a region and live there," said ANZ senior economist, Felicity Emmett.

"It does make it relatively very affordable to move to the regions and that is crowding out some of these longer standing residents in the regional areas, and that's whether they are renting or they are buying, but they are bringing these much higher incomes," she added.