Housing loan quartiles

Housing loan quartiles group households with a mortgage into four evenly sized repayment bands so mortgage costs can be compared more objectively across areas and over time. They describe the relative repayment profile of mortgaged households rather than fixed dollar amounts.

This topic is useful because direct repayment values are affected by inflation, interest rates, and housing market cycles. The 2021 Census occurred during a period of unusually low interest rates, so quartile comparisons are more informative than raw repayment levels alone.

Interpretation notes

• This is a derived repayment distribution for households with a mortgage, so quartiles show relative repayment position rather than fixed dollar bands.
• Quartiles are more useful than raw repayment ranges for comparing areas or years affected by different interest-rate settings.
• The 2021 distribution reflects a low-interest-rate period before the rate rises that began in May 2022.