Camperdown, Koroit residents falling behind in mortgage payments

Data obtained by credit bureau illion reveals the two south-west towns have a higher number of people who have fallen behind in their mortgage repayments than the state average.

The number of people in metropolitan Victoria who are in arrears by 30 days or more on their mortgage is 0.67 per cent, which is higher than the average for regional Victoria, which sits at 0.62 per cent.

"The Western District towns of Colac, Warrnambool and Hamilton are all in line with this average, displaying home loan arrears rates of 0.5 per cent 0.6 per cent and 0.7 per cent, respectively," a company spokesman said.

"This level of arrears is similar to other regional centres such as Horsham (0.6 per cent).

"Portland, however, is displaying slightly elevated home loan late payments at 1.0 per cent. This is more similar to other regional centres such as Stawell (1.0 per cent).

"Some smaller towns of Western District such as Koroit (1.2 per cent) and Camperdown (1.5 per cent) are also showing elevated home loan arrears at roughly double the average home loan arrears rate."

Warrnambool financial adviser James Kelly said the rise - while expected - would be a bitter pill to swallow for people with mortgage payments.

"It's going to come as a shock to a lot of people who are already finding it hard to pay their mortgage," Mr Kelly said.

He said in addition to forecasts of another rate rise, a number of people would end fixed-term mortgages they had locked in this year.

"There are a lot of people coming off fixed-term mortgages this year," Mr Kelly said.

"There were a number of people who were able to lock in a very low fixed rate at about the time of the pandemic and about 85 per cent of those will expire this year."

This will mean the interest rates for some lenders would jump from about 2.5 per cent to about 6 per cent overnight.

Mr Kelly advised people facing this prospect to "shop around".

"Banks and lenders are chasing people for business and a lot are offering a pretty attractive lump sum to switch to them," he said.

"However, people need to be very careful that they're not just looking at that short-term bonus.

"Make sure you look at the rate they're charging."

Mr Kelly said people needed to rein in their spending to help reduce inflation.

Interest rates have been hiked by 0.25 of a percentage point to reach 3.35 per cent, their highest point in more than a decade, adding $21 a week to repayments on a $600,000 standard variable rate mortgage.

In a widely expected move, the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to deliver its ninth rate rise since May despite its view that inflation peaked late last year and will decline gradually through 2023.

In comments accompanying the announcement, RBA governor Philip Lowe indicated more rate hikes are likely.

Mr Lowe said the Reserve Bank Board expected that "further increases in interest rates will be needed over the months ahead".

The 0.25 of a percentage point rate hike would lift the average variable mortgage rate among the big lenders to 6.5 per cent but economists warned of the risk that banks might increase their interest rates even higher because of higher funding costs on global markets.

The size of average home loan repayments have climbed more than 60 per cent in the past nine months.

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