Housing crisis: First-home buyers with MONSTER MORTGAGES

PHOTO: Monster mortgages. GETTY

First-home buyers are taking on more debt than ever before and are borrowing more than five-times their income as house prices continue to surge.

Economists say this piles pressure on the Government to make even more moves against investors.

The new data released by the Reserve Bank shows half of first-home buyers’ mortgages were five-times or more than their income in December. That’s up from about one-third of first-home buyers the year before.

Brad Olsen, Infometrics senior economist, says it highlights how unaffordable housing is.

“[It also shows] how much people are jumping into the market, trying to secure a property, and getting up to their eyeballs in debt.”

Finance Minister Grant Robertson told Newshub he is “concerned about borrowing of this nature”.

He has asked the Reserve Bank to look into introducing a debt to income cap that would limit the amount buyers can borrow. But the Government is only keen on the idea if it would hurt investors more than first-home buyers.