There have never been more Australians "at risk" of mortgage stress, new research has found, while warning rising petrol prices and a dropping dollar signals more pain ahead.
The record high of 1.57 million people at risk represents 30.2 per cent of all borrowers, data from Roy Morgan showed.
The number of borrowers at risk has increased by a whopping 759,000 since May last year, when the Reserve Bank began its cycle of interest rate increases.
Interest rates now sit at 4.1 per cent, the highest level since May 2012. The Reserve Bank will make another rates announcement today.
Over the past year, the number of households that have fallen a month or more behind in mortgage repayments has increased in every state and territory, data from the global ratings agency S&P has revealed.
Stretched borrowers have found their monthly repayments skyrocketing as interest rates got jacked up from a super low 0.1 per cent in May last year to 4.1 per cent by June.
The RBA has been hiking rates to try and bring down high inflation.
Inflation in August was 5.2 per cent, a bump up of 0.3 per cent from a month earlier.
August was the first inflation increase since April 2023, but was still well below the cycle high of 7.8 per cent in the year to December 2022.
Roy Morgan chief executive Michele Levine warned the twin forces of rising petrol prices and a slumping Aussie dollar may cause inflation to rise, which in turn will put pressure on the RBA to lift rates in the months ahead.
"The monthly increase in inflation is concerning, but also not surprising as energy prices have increased rapidly in recent months," Levine said.
"As long as the Australian Dollar stays low and petrol prices stay high, and even increase further, there will be additional inflationary pressures in the economy."
The proportion of mortgage holders "at risk" - currently 30.2 per cent - is below the record reached during the Global Financial Crisis because of the larger size of the mortgage market today.
The record of 35.6 per cent in mortgage stress was reached in mid-2008.
Roy Morgan considers borrowers "at risk" if their mortgage repayments are greater than a certain percentage of household income – depending on income and spending.
A national cost of living crunch, rising inflation and RBA hikes all helped to trigger a mini slump in national property houses in 2022, but that is now over.
According to new data from PropTrack, the property market has recovered 2022's falls entirely after climbing 0.35 per cent month-on-month to hit pre-slump highs.
Nationally, prices are up 4.31 per cent this year, the report said.
