High prices lead to lift in joint home loan borrowings

A NEW survey has indicated that an increase in joint home loans between borrowers other than couples is being used as a way to get around high property prices and access an increasingly unaffordable market.Mortgage Choice recently surveyed its nationwide franchisees to find that more than one third said they were seeing an increase in categories of joint borrowers. Of these, parents and children came in first at 56.9 per cent, extended family second at 13.5 per cent, friends third at 12.9 per cent and siblings fourth in at 11.4 per cent.Mortgage Choice national corporate affairs manager Warren O’Rourke said many of the company’s loan consultants were seeing these situations on an increasingly regular basis.“This trend is gradually increasing and is especially prevalent in areas of dense housing, such as the capital cities or popular coastal areas. These areas bring in the majority of joint loans due to their high property prices and living costs,” he said.