Australian banks are cutting lending standards for home loans in order to secure business in a flat market, global investment bank Credit Suisse has claimed. As families avoid debt, leading analysts believe the banks are becoming more desperate for business and are in danger of again embracing the dangerous lending standards that led to the collapse…
Latest Property News
Landlords continue to hold the upper hand over tenants with new data showing little movement in already tight residential vacancy rates. Figures released by property research house SQM Research revealed most capital cities either remained the same or recorded slight increases during April. Darwin was the only capital city to record a monthly decline, falling…
Recent property sales at Sydney Olympic Park prove the area is no white elephant, with 30 apartments in the Australia Towers II Complex selling for over $1,000,000 each. The highest sale price was $1,295,000 – well above Homebush’s median unit price of $443,500, according to RP data. Read more here
THE Australian dollar could fall below US90¢ if Greece pulls out of the eurozone, the chief currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank warned as leaders from the G8 group of nations worked over the weekend to combat the region’s financial turmoil. The dollar fell to US98.24¢ on Friday, its lowest level in nearly six months, after…
Separating truth from spruik. What a difference a year makes. At least if you’ve ignored all the hype. It was about this time in 2011 when the word went out we were in the midst of a rare phenomenon — a buyer’s market. Advertisement: Story continues below Clearance rates were on the slide. Supply was way up.…
Professional investors understand that you can’t outsmart the market. It’s a lesson worth remembering if you’re looking at refinancing a loan with a fixed-rate loan. Some borrowers have legtimate reasons to want fixed costs of capital. But there are other types of borrowers who believe that they will gain an advantage by taking a fixed…
With the end of the financial year approaching, property investors will be starting to think about what they can and cannot claim in their tax returns. This year the Australian Tax Office has vowed to target property investors making false claims, so it is more important than ever that your tax return be letter-perfect. This…
Whether you are buying or selling real estate the importance of property inspections is paramount in a smooth transaction. Not being prepared can lead to last-minute disruptions in a sale or purchase and cause major headaches to all parties involved. For a buyer, a pre-purchase building inspection report (whether it is for a house, a…
Well, he’s done it. Treasurer Wayne Swan has kept his political promise to deliver a surplus in 2012-13, with his fifth federal budget set to swing from a deficit of $44.4 billion this year to a tiny surplus of $1.5 billion in 2012-13. But getting there will not be easy. To reach the surplus, Swan…
The lower north shore enjoyed a slight price revival during the March quarter, according Residex, being the strong Sydney precinct. Houses prices rose on the lower north shore by 3.79% during the first quarter of 2012 to a $1,424,500 median value. Most of the growth came during the month of March. Read more here…