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AUSTRALIA’S banks could be facing a massive new class action over allegations that their mortgage lending practices have put thousands of families in severe financial stress or at risk of losing their homes.

Organisers estimate that up to 300,000 mortgage holders would be eligible to participate in the action, which is expected to focus on first home buyers and lower-income households who received loans since the onset of the global financial crisis.

The soft homebuyer market has put increased pressure on the rental market, resulting in higher rents across the entire country, according to Australian Property Monitors’ Rental Price Series quarterly report.

Affordability is the key this year as Sydney buyers shift attention to older, more affordable units in prime lifestyle locations along Sydney’s inner coastal areas and also to cheap housing on the metro city fringe, according to WBP Property Group New South Wales manager Chris Lackey.

Investors are more likely to have daggy kitchens and older bathrooms for the next 12 months with renovations on the decline, but property prices are still firm, says the Housing Industry Association’s Kitchen and Bathrooms: Past Growth and Future Prospects 2011/2012 report.