Great news for first home buyers comes in the way of a comprehensive package announced by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Thursday 1st June. The package focuses on additional stamp duty relief for first home buyers, an increase in housing supply to improve affordability and reduced competition from investors.
Interest rate cuts are welcome news to Australian home owners as banks respond to this months RBA decision. Yesterday, 3rd May, the Reserve Bank of Australia cut the cash rate by 25 basis points to 1.75% which is an all-time low in Australia.
You can easily pay off your mortgage faster with very small changes that won’t have an affect on your day to day finances. Many people think that the only way to save money on a home loan is to pay large amounts of additional repayments that they just can’t afford – this is not the case. There are many small changes that you can make that will dramatically reduce both the amount of interest you pay over the life of your loan and the years it takes to pay off.
It’s important to know the things that affect your credit score and what this means for your ability to get a loan. A Credit score is a number calculated from your credit history that determines if you are a good risk for a financial institution to lend money to. In Australia, an average credit score is 749, but a good score can range between 622 and 1200.
Most mortgage brokers in Australia provide advice and services to their customers free of charge, this is because they are paid mortgage broker commission by the lenders when they get a loan settled for a customer. Mortgage broker commission is paid in two ways by the bank or finance lender for each loan that goes through, these are called upfront commission and trail commission.
Over the past week, all four of the major banks in Australia have announced an increase on interest rates for variable home loans, independent of the RBA ( Reserve Bank of Australia). The RBA have kept the cash rate at a record low of 2% for three consecutive months but the banks are sighting their increases on a requirement to hold more capital to cover their mortgage loan books as the reason for the rise in interest rates.
Finding the cheapest home loan isn’t as simple as looking at a home loan comparison chart and picking the lender who has the lowest rate. If that was the case, we’d all have our home loans with the same lender and the rest would go out of business. There are many variables in choosing the right loan and sometimes what appears to be the cheapest home loan, is not actually the case.
With property prices in Australia rapidly increasing, saving enough money for a good deposit on a home loan is becoming more and more difficult. Lenders in Australia prefer a deposit of 20% of the property value but if that figure is out of your league, there are other options. Lenders Mortgage Insurance allows you to have a smaller deposit and still get a home loan.
Today the Reserve bank of Australia cut the official cash rate to an all time record low of just 2%, this is the second cash rate cut in Australia this year.
There are a few cornerstones of residential lending criteria that are vital to you being approved for a loan.