The Impact of the GST on Mortgage Yield Spreads of Australian Building Societies

Abstract

Australia has experienced significant rises in mortgage costs and sharp declines in housing affordability in the last few decades, particularly since it implemented a new tax system of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in July 2000. Prior research has attempted to examine the influence of the GST on general price levels, but little research effort has been directed to investigate the impact of the GST on mortgage costs. Using proprietary data of major building societies in Australia for 36 months, this paper examines the changes of mortgage yield spreads in the pre-and post-GST periods for building societies. Results suggest that the lenders significantly increased their mortgage charges in the post-GST periods. For example, the increase is found to be, on average, 59.0 basis points which are much higher than that of banks.