First home buyers looking for a first rung on the property ladder are honing in on locations near public transport with affordability in mind.

In most parts of the country the most popular location was clear, however in NSW and Victoria buyers were scrambling to get in wherever they could, according to broker platform Hashching.

Their analysis found buyers were looking for the “sweet spot” of good commuting options to capital cities, affordable housing, and nearby recreational areas, which was reflected in the high number of transactions from independent mortgage brokers.

Top locations for first home buyers

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Hasching chief executive Arun Maharaj said that in NSW and Victoria the market had failed to create appealing centres of entry-level property, pushing the cohort to other states.

“This results in buyers choosing to save more and compete with buyers higher up the ladder rather than relocate, or to choose to purchase their first home elsewhere,” Maharaj said.

“From the data, it looks like Hobart is the prime beneficiary of this trend, which saw high first home buyer activity in centralised locations, with Adelaide’s southern postcodes also seeing significant activity, which suggests first home buyers are finding refuge there from other states.”

The Australian Bureau of Statistics shows a third of people looking at the residential property market were first home buyers.

Since the end of HomeBuilder the number of new loan commitments for this group dropped -6.8 per cent in July following a -7.8 per cent drop the previous month.

The drop in new loan commitments was felt across the broader owner-occupier market, which fell -6.1 per cent for newly erected homes and -4.7 to build new homes.