Warning from down under as mortgage fraud revealed

A third of mortgages approved by lenders in Australia were based on information that was less than honest.

According to an analyst from global financial services company UBS, the level of factually inaccurate mortgage applications has grown from 27% in 2015 to 33% in 2017.

Like Canada, Australia has skyrocketing house prices and high levels of household debt and it seems some Aussies are opting for risky behaviour to get a home, fearing that homeownership is moving further out of reach.

The dishonest applications – dubbed ‘liar loans’ -  amount to around $500 billion, 18% of all Australian consumer credit.

Analyst Jonathan Mott has warned his clients that he is “very cautious” about the medium-term future for the sector following his anonymous survey of mortgage applicants.

The poll revealed that many applicants said that their mortgage advisor has encouraged them to misrepresent their income.

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