The Mortgage belt is a term used in Australian politics to signify residential suburbs which have a high concentration of families mortgaging their homes.
Often the belt covers areas where homes could be considered more affordable yet the cost of servicing the mortgage loan represents a high proportion of the families' available income. Changes to cost of servicing a mortgage, seen through interest rate fluctuations, can trigger wide-spread satisfaction or dissatisfaction towards the government of the day.
In the 2004 federal election, the mortgage belt voted highly in favour of the Coalition party, in fear that economic management under the Australian Labor Party could increase interest rates. The Coalition ran a successful fear campaign on the issue and this became one of the keystones which helped it win a successive fourth term. However, it is generally agreed that governments have little control over interest rates, which are set by the Reserve Bank of Australia.
In March 2005, interest rates rose by a quarter of a percent.
Mortgage belt areas played a significant role in the 2007 election where Labor won back many mortgage belt Liberal strongholds won in the 1996 election due to general disaffection with the incumbent government as well as high interest rates.
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