Australians in Record Loan Spree as House Prices Soar: Mortgages

Australian homebuyers are borrowing at the fastest pace in four years amid record prices, straining debt levels already among the developed world’s highest as interest rates are set to climb.

The value of new mortgage approvals jumped 25 percent in November from a year earlier, the fastest annual pace since September 2009, to a record A$26.9 billion ($23.8 billion), according to the statistics bureau. Ten out of 29 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News forecast the Reserve Bank of Australia will raise its benchmark rate by the fourth quarter and the median forecast is for a 25 basis-point increase in the first three months of next year.