How does your home loan compare to your colleagues?

Lawyers are living in properties 35 per cent more expensive and buying three years earlier than the typical Australian.

As revealed in their new report Unveiling the Legal Advantage, mortgage broking firm Legal Home Loans investigated how lawyers have been affected by the recent cash rate rises, where their lending sits against the general population and how soon they are entering the market.

While there is an abundance of Australian mortgage data available, never has it been segmented based on a specific profession.

In what has been a challenging past year for borrowers, the report explores how the Reserve Bank of Australia’s consecutive rate rises have impacted the profession. Compared to the previous 12 months, legal professionals are now paying an additional $1100 per month on their home loan – from an average of $3189 to $4289.

As for purchasing behaviour, legal professionals are buying properties 35 per cent more expensive than the average Australian – with an impressive average property value of $1.1 million. This disparity could be influenced by legal professionals having higher incomes, higher savings, and a lower threshold to obtain a loan due to professional advantages.

Included within the report, the top 10 residential locations for lawyers shows they are gravitating towards metropolitan areas in affluent suburbs, despite remote working changes post pandemic. This reflects their lifestyle preferences and their desire for proximity to central business districts. As for the most popular residential suburb in Queensland, Ashgrove took out the number one spot.

Further reflecting the legal advantage, lawyers were found to be buying their first home at 31 years of age – three years sooner than the Australian average.

With a legal practising certificate, many lawyers are eligible for waived lender’s mortgage insurance when buying with a 10 per cent deposit. When buying with a 10 per cent deposit vs the 20 per cent deposit required of the average Australian, this shaves off five years of saving your hard-earned income.

Unveiling The Legal Advantage could have implications for how lawyers think and approach home ownership, particularly in light of changing economic conditions and interest rate fluctuations. While legal professionals are seemingly ahead of the population, there may be untapped potential for lawyers to enter the property market sooner, grow their portfolios and ultimately enhance their wealth and financial security further.

To read the full report and discover the full scope of unique findings, you can download your free report via https://legalhomeloans.com.au/home-loan-insights-for-legal-professionals/

This report is a quantitative study with data taken from the LHL database of home loan records. 610 records from January 2022 to January 2023 were randomly selected for analysis, with a loan type segment split closely in line with national statistics. Where relevant, we have used the National Profile of Solicitors 2022 (NPS) and lending indicators data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to draw comparisons and analysis. All data remains anonymous and has been used for the purpose of informing trends rather than revealing individual data.