“The present low rates are the gift that keeps on giving” Noel Whittaker Noel Whittaker is the author of Making Money Made Simple and numerous other books on personal finance. Noel says borrowers now should be celebrating the fact that they’ve got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to really make a dent in that mortgage. So what […]

  “There is a boom unfolding in the number of home loan customers refinancing at lower interest rates as banks fight to take business from rivals.” SMH 2/4/16 The boom comes after banks last year began to aggressively target owner-occupiers with lower interest rates and other perks, after the banking regulator clamped down on lending to […]

“There is still a lot of unsatisfied demand for housing.”  ANZ senior economist David Cannington NSW’s shortage of housing has been growing each year for the last decade. NSW could close its borders tomorrow and it would still take 3 years to build enough homes to fill the state’s unprecedented housing shortage.  And despite a […]

“14 out of 20 banks surveyed increased the interest rate to assess whether borrowers can service their home and investment loans.” The banking regulator APRA said on Thursday it had conducted a “hypothetical borrower exercise” in early 2015, and again later that year, to compare due diligence of borrowing across various banks. APRA insists banks should use a “serviceability buffer” of at least 2% above the interest […]

Don’t know your LMI from your LVR from your CGT?  See the following A to Z of borrowing terminology….. Amortisation period The number of years it will take to fully pay off a home loan. Appreciation An increase in the value of a property. Bank valuation A bank’s estimate of a property’s value. This is […]