Mortgage Stress Victoria is a free specialist service helping Victorians with mortgage stress to stay in their homes sustainably. Our team consists of lawyers, financial counsellors, and social workers.
Mortgage repayments are taking a higher share of Australian incomes than ever before.1 Housing is less affordable than ever, household debt is high, and there is fierce competition to secure rental accommodation.2 Given that tenancy no longer offers a dependable safety net, many of our clients who cannot make ends meet face eviction from home ownership straight into homelessness.
Our service provides ongoing, multidisciplinary help on a range of issues related to mortgage stress. We take an intensive approach because mortgage stress is a broad picture. In addition to legal and financial factors, there are usually health and well-being causes that need to be resolved before a person can get their life back on track.
Mortgage Stress Victoria collaborates across sectors and draws on its casework to provide evidence to policymakers and industry on the nature, drivers and impacts of mortgage stress.
Mortgage Stress Victoria began as a pilot project, servicing Melbourne’s western suburbs. While we are now a statewide service funded by the Victorian Government, we are auspiced by WEstjustice.
1 Economics Legislation Committee, Senate Estimates, Reserve Bank of Australia, evidence of Governor Phillip Lowe, 31 May 2023. Link
2 Ibid. The rental vacancy rate is the lowest it has ever been.