Aug 25, 2026 · 5 min · 3 segments
# The Worst Time Ever For First Home Buyers? Politicians may be claiming there has never been a better time to buy your first home, but the numbers tell a very different story. New research from…
Terry RyderHost
New research from Analytics Group Foundit has concluded that 2026 is the worst year to be a first home buyer since records began in 1970.
First home buyers are being asked to take on more debt than any previous generation while paying higher interest rates on that debt and trying to save deposits from wages that have failed to keep pace with property prices.
An average income earner buying a medium priced capital city home now needs to spend 10.2 times annual income.
Some people point to the late 1980s as proof that today's buyers should stop complaining because previous generations paid those enormous interest rates, but they overlook the size of the loan.
Today's buyer may face a low interest rate, but being charged against a debt mountain more than twice as large relative to income.
And for the first time on record, saving even a 10% deposit requires more than a full year of the average wage.
The 5% deposit scheme gets people through the front door with less cash, but it also means they enter the market with more debt and less equity.
The cheaper properties that first home buyers are actually competing for have held up far better on price, and in some locations they have continued rising in price.
So buyers have lost borrowing capacity because of higher interest rates without receiving an equivalent reduction in purchase prices.
New research from Analytics Group Foundit has concluded that 2026 is the worst year to be a first home buyer since records began in 1970.
First home buyers are being asked to take on more debt than any previous generation while paying higher interest rates on that debt and trying to save deposits from wages that have failed to keep pace with property prices.
An average income earner buying a medium priced capital city home now needs to spend 10.2 times annual income.
Some people point to the late 1980s as proof that today's buyers should stop complaining because previous generations paid those enormous interest rates, but they overlook the size of the loan.
Today's buyer may face a low interest rate, but being charged against a debt mountain more than twice as large relative to income.
And for the first time on record, saving even a 10% deposit requires more than a full year of the average wage.
The 5% deposit scheme gets people through the front door with less cash, but it also means they enter the market with more debt and less equity.
The cheaper properties that first home buyers are actually competing for have held up far better on price, and in some locations they have continued rising in price.
So buyers have lost borrowing capacity because of higher interest rates without receiving an equivalent reduction in purchase prices.
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