Mortgages 79% of average pay

A home loan affordability index shows the cost of a mortgage rose last month to 79.3 per cent of the average weekly take-home pay.

Interest rate comparison website www.interest.co.nz said the national rate of affordability was well up on April last year (66.8 per cent).

The website said that five years ago it took 46.3 per cent of take-home pay to make a mortgage payment on a median house.

David Chaston, the publisher of www.interest.co.nz, said during May there was a 0.3 per cent rise in median house prices, a rise in benchmark interest rates to 8.79 per cent, and a $1.40 increase in weekly take-home pay ($671.65).

Prices and interest rates were rising faster than pay.

- NZPA