В Перте выявлены районы с максимальными долгами по студенческим кредитам: от центра до южного коридора

The Perth suburbs with the highest HECS repayments revealed Former or current university students with Western Australia’s biggest HECS balances are mostly found in inner-city suburbs, a new analysis has revealed, while the biggest concentration of people paying off their loans are residing in Perth’s south. Across the metropolitan area there were almost 200,000 people paying off an average debt of $26,900 – less than the national average – according to Australian Taxation Office data from the 2023 to 2024 financial year compiled by KPMG. The total, those living in Perth owed more than $5 billion. In regional WA, there were just over 27,000 people with a HECS debt, sitting at an average of $22,200 per person. Nationally, 2.4 million taxpayers have a HECS debt, with the majority under 30 years old. The biggest student loan balances in Perth were found in suburbs that attracted highly skilled workers, well-paid jobs and strong long-term career prospects, KPMG urban economist Terry Rawnsley said. “Rather than signalling financial stress, it shows how higher education can act as an investment in future earnings,” he said. “A large HECS balance is often a signal of advanced qualifications, and these qualifications are typically associated with higher-paying occupations in sectors such as law, medicine, and technology. “This is really a story about the geography of opportunity.” The inner-city postcode 6000 had one of the highest average debts in the metropolitan area – nearly $8000 more than the average. Other inner-city areas including 6005 and 6008 were close behind. Rawnsley said it could be expected that students who studied courses like medicine, law, engineering or business, would be most likely to live in the inner-city suburbs. “They are often white-collar professionals who are working typically higher-paying jobs in the CBD and also wanting a certain lifestyle, with easy access to cafes and bars,” he said. But the majority of people paying off a university debt were living in Perth’s southern corridor. Those with the postcode 6164 – which covers 11 suburbs including Atwell, Cockburn Central, Success and Yangebup – were paying the greatest combined total of nearly $180 million, split across 6676 people. Coming in second place was the 6163 postcode, including suburbs like Hamilton Hill, Hilton and Coolbellup. Rawnsley said those suburbs were more affordable for young people who had only just entered the workforce, and were also relatively close to university campuses. Those suburbs were also more likely to attract people who studied service degrees like teaching or nursing – similar to South West and Great Southern towns including Bunbury and Albany, which had the highest combined debts regionally. Across the state, HECS debts are likely to stay higher for longer, according to Rawnsley, as the cost-of-living crisis results in fewer people being able to make voluntary contributions, paired with high indexation rates. But overall, WA has far fewer people with a HECS debt when compared to Melbourne and Sydney – and not just because there are fewer people to match, Rawnsley said. “The average HECS debt reached its peak about three or four years before this data set, and then started to flat-line after COVID,” he said. “More people are choosing Tafe courses and deciding that maybe a university degree, and the significant debt left behind, is not worth the time or money. “WA’s industrial sector, largely related to mining, is so strong that this is hardly a surprise.”