A rising number of Australians are struggling to make their mortgage payments as increasing property prices and interest rates take a bigger chunk out of homeowners’ incomes, a mortgage brokers’ association said. About 16 percent of property owners struggled to repay home loans in November, up from 11.7 percent in May, the Mortgage Finance Association of Australia said in an e-mailed press release, citing the MFAA/Bankwest Home Finance Index, which surveyed 850 people across Australia. “Recent interest rate increases are negatively impacting households,” Phil Naylor, chief executive officer of the MFAA, said in the statement.