Negative gearing to stay for the sake of renters, says Morrison
In a pre-budget speech today, Treasurer Scott Morrison said that restricting negative gearing would worsen housing affordability problems for renters and hurt “mum and dad” investors.
Virgin Money and NAB entice borrowers with home loan rewards points
Interest rates are on the rise for Aussie home loan hopefuls, but banks are now offering other incentives to snag borrowers’ business, including the chance to earn rewards points on their home loan balance.
No signs of slowing - Sydney records $760 million auction weekend
Another weekend in Sydney means one thing - another set of property records have fallen, with the harbour city registering an all time high of over $760 million worth of property sold in weekend auctions.
Interest only loans for investors hit by rate hikes up to 0.39%
A spate of recent mortgage rate hikes by lenders has been making news lately, but there’s one set of borrowers who are being hammered worse than any others: investors with interest only loans.
ANZ and NAB among eight home loan lenders liable for customer remediation
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced eight home loan lenders may be required to provide remediation to customers who have experienced financial difficulty as a result of previous lending practices.
What will the APRA mortgage lending restrictions mean for borrowers?
APRA has responded to rising house prices and increasing household debt by hitting banks with further restrictions on interest only and investor lending - which could mean ‘risky’ borrowers find their home loan applications rejected.
Sydney property prices grow 19%: should Aussies salary-sacrifice to buy in?
House prices in the Sydney and Melbourne property markets continued to swell in March, according to CoreLogic data, and now the idea of a superannuation-like scheme to help first home buyers save up a deposit may become a reality.
Time is ticking...will the banks move to a positive credit reporting model?
It’s been two years since changes to the Privacy Act were made in 2014, which meant that banks and credit reporting companies could begin collecting greater information about a customer's financial situation. However, the majority of banks are still yet to adopt this new positive credit reporting model and are instead sticking to negative reporting.
19 lenders join the big banks in lifting home loan rates
Over the last few weeks the home loan world sure has had a shake up, with all four of the big banks - NAB, Westpac, ANZ and CommBank - lifting variable rates for Aussie borrowers.
Big banks set to make multi-million dollar profits from recent rate hikes
All four of Australia’s big banks have now made increases to their variable home loan interest rates, ranging from as low as a 0.03% increase for owner-occupiers, to a hefty 0.25% hike for investors. And as the dust settles, Mozo data has revealed that each bank stands to make millions of extra dollars from the hikes.