More than half of both home loan borrowers and savers feel the need to choose between their dream job or dream house, according to the latest survey from Bluestone Home Loans.
Around 67% of savers and 55% of borrowers stay in their current job instead of pursuing their dream jobs to improve their chances of being approved for a home loan, with millennials feeling more compelled to do so than the older generations.
“There’s much talk at the moment about ‘The Great Resignation’ as people reassess their priorities in the wake of COVID-19,” said James Angus, chief customer officer at Bluestone Home Loans. “And yet, in Australia, the number of workers resigning has fallen to an all-time low.”
Only 7.6% of workers changed jobs in the year to February 2021, a number that has been steadily declining since the peak of 19.5% in 1988-89 after lending restrictions tightened and home loan rates surged.
Interestingly, categories of higher-income workers, borrowers and savers from NSW and Victoria, and Australians with children under 18, feel the most trapped in their current jobs.
“Ultimately, feeling trapped in a job isn’t good for individuals and it’s not good for the health and innovation of the Australian economy,” Angus said.
Once borrowers manage to secure a home, 40% of them plan to pursue their dream job within five years and 25% of them plan to switch to a different job within two years. However, half of them would have lost interest in pursuing their dream job by then in the chase of homeownership.
Angus said borrowers shouldn’t have to choose between the two, especially since lending criteria should also work to accommodate borrower needs.
“Now more than ever, people have different hopes and aspirations and prefer to choose different paths to success,” Angus said. “That’s why lenders need to take a more holistic – and human – approach to their lending criteria, particularly when many of us don’t conform to the stereotype of what makes for a good borrower.”
