The decision to renovate is a common sticking point for homeowners, who can spend hours weighing up the cost benefits. Whether your motivation is to add value to your property or to add a touch of your personality to the home, renovations are expensive and debt often follows. By working with a mortgage broker, you […]
Buying your dream home is exciting, so the last thing you want is for your home loan application to be held up. While many factors are considered in assessing an application, showing stability and consistency is key for lenders to determine whether you will be able to repay the loan. But sometimes what’s happening in […]
Developers generally offer incentives because they need to get pre-sales in what could be a slow or oversupplied market, which in turn enables them to get a project up and running. Offering incentives is a marketing tactic. The problem for buyers is that they could end up overpaying for a property and then having issues […]
The Reserve Bank board has kept its cash rate on hold at a record low of 1.5 per cent for the 13th consecutive month, amid a host of signs that the economy is picking up. Treasurer Scott Morrison told the Coalition party room as the board was meeting that job advertisements were growing strongly, climbing 13 […]
Everyone heads out to look at potential homes with a list of the things they want in a house, and a list of the things they definitely do not want. In addition to that wish list, there are also some other things you will notice about the homes you visit that may strike you as […]
Interest rates are a hot topic right now. Up until recent times, home loan rates were identical to investment loan rates It’s not as easy as it once was to apply for an interest only loan. Over the last few months lending for this type of loan has been tightened by the banks in an effort to slow […]
If you are a first-time homeowner, or are purchasing a home after a major life change such as marriage or having children, what should you consider to be sure your new home can grow with your changing family? The time and effort that go into purchasing and decorating a new home, not to mention finding […]
If you apply for a home loan, particularly if the loan is for more than 80 per cent of a property’s value, you’ll more than likely have to prove to lenders that you have a satisfactory amount of savings. This is to demonstrate your ability to funnel a portion of your income into repayments. Although […]
While Aussie mortgage holders have enjoyed low interest rates for several years now, the party might soon be over. The Reserve Bank of Australia revealed in the July minutes of its monetary policy meeting that it considered the neutral cash rate to be 3.5%, a two-percentage point increase over the current record low cash rate […]
Simply put, over capitalisation is when the cost of a home improvement is more than the value it adds to your property. While some renovations can increase the value of your home, there is an upper limit on what properties are worth at any given time. 1 – Getting Emotionally Involved Many homeowners undertake a […]