West Australia specifically set up Keystart to assist first-time buyers who may not be able to get a mortgage from a traditional lender. Why then is Keystart rorting those people?
The Reserve Bank has just dropped interest rates 0.75% this month but KeyStart is only passing on 0.5%. Keystart currentlt has an interest rate of 7.26% but the big banks have rates as low as 7.07%. What gives – remember this is a government agency! It has a credit rating of AAA because it is backed by the WA government!
More on Interest Rate Cuts Not Passed On To Those Who Need Them
Its the silly season down under! Its the time of the year when people’s thoughts are about spending too much money for unwanted presents, eating too much and generally going on holiday. Its not traditionally a good time to buy/sell or rent houses.
The news is good for the Australians – the Federal government wants you to take a break, get to the beach, break open a stubbie and have a holiday!
The Tourism Minister, Martin Ferguson has suggested that Australians take the 121 million days of leave they are owed and take the holiday at home to help kick start the economy.
The speculation is that tomorrow will see the RBA drop Australia’s official rates of 1.25% – and that’s what the the financial markets have priced in. Economists are more reserved though, a drop of that size would be the largest in history since the RBA started regulating official interest rates in 1990. With suggestions that the economy is already heading towards or in recession such a dramatic drop may not be necessary.
More on Australia Property News: Interest Rate Cuts and Auction Rates
Although the rate of mortgage defaults: or mortgage stress as the Australian Press likes to call it is nothing like the overseas rates it is on the way up in Australia.
The western suburbs of Sydney have been Australia’s hotspot for mortgage stress for sometime but the latest report from Fitch Ratings has three new areas which have rapidly increased their level of mortgage defaults. These include the Gold Coast, Regional NSW particularly Gosford, Woollongong and Newcastle, and last and somewhat surprisingly, eastern metropolitan Perth.
I’ve mentioned before the complete fixation that the entire building industry has on over-priced, over-sized MacMansions and now the statistics suggest that Australian home buyers agree with me!
These figures from Perth, which has an urban sprawl to rival LA’s, but I suspect there would be a similar story in most large Australian cities. Well according to figures from REIWA at no time over the last 10 years have bigger houses performed better than smaller in terms of capital gain News on the street from agents is that buyers use location and lifestyle to make their choice rather than size. The picture really is a mixture with the baby-boomers and migrants wanting smaller properties nearer the CBD and families moving to the outer suburbs.
Tired of the doom and gloom of the world share markets and property? Don’t want to know that as of yesterday Australia’s share market was worth exactly 50% of what it was last year? Well I have a word for you: timeshares. The timeshare operators are in the market and are buying up big!
On-line real estate classified market seems resilient in the face of turmoil elsewhere in the property market.
The REA Group’s new CEO Greg Ellis says that the Group will focus on improved profitability and improving the level of innovation in the coming year.
The biggest investment listing of 2008 in Brisbane has been withdrawn from the market. Even so Brisbane, which has recorded $730 million in CBD sales is in marked contrast to Sydney. Sydney, according to Jones Lang LaSalle has only had a handful of commercial sales.
