“Referral fees paid by banks are murky. Right now we don’t know who pays what to whom as part of the mortgage referral process.” Erin Turner from Choice A little-known way of drumming up business for banks is to pay a “spotters fee” to lawyers, accountants and real estate agents. This can result in payments of thousands of dollars […]

Recently some lenders have announced they are now helping parents who are on parental leave for up to 12 months. These lenders will recognise return to work income for new home loans, investment loans and top-up loans. They also have flexible payment options such as switching to interest only repayments, restructuring other loan repayments or […]

Economic growth rate has accelerated so how will this affect interest rates? The Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday gross domestic product expanded 1.1% in the first three months of the year compared with 0.7% in the last quarter of 2015. And year-on-year growth accelerated from 2.9% to 3.1% which is the fastest pace in almost four years. […]

“Australian property prices were up 2.4% over the three months to April with growth in all capital cities except Hobart”, CoreLogic RP Data’s Home Value Index Property experts have been surprised by new data released on Monday that paints a much rosier picture of Australia’s housing markets than expected. The bullish numbers from CoreLogic RP […]

Last week the Australia economy saw deflation for the first time in seven years.  And the RBA yesterday cut interest rates by 0.25%.  This is the lowest cash rate for several years. So what is the interest rate outlook for the remainder of the year? The ABS said the consumer price index dropped to 1.55% which well below the […]