By 2013 the interest rate for homeowners could hit nine per cent, one industry expert has noted.
Homeowners could see the interest rate hit nine per cent in less than three years, according to a property expert.
Chief economist at research firm BIS Shrapnel Frank Gelber told a conference in Melbourne on Tuesday (September 14th) that levels could reach this as a "minimum" by 2013, the Herald Sun reports.
But this kind of rise could see an increase of $298 to an average $285,000 variable home loan.
Mr Gelber observed that this would mean a cash rate - which was maintained at 4.5 per cent by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) earlier this month - of between seven and 7.5 per cent.
He stated that the RBA - which has not increased the official cash level since May, when levels on home loans were about right, it recently pointed out - would take the same stance as it did when interest rates rose until April 2008.
"It's not happening now, but we haven't got a big window before it happens again so we have to build our forecasts on expectations of very strongly rising interest rates," he continued.
By Emma North
