An article on the website realestate.com.au says that the Reserve Bank of Australia is considering cutting down the interest rate by a few more basis points to strengthen the low-growth areas. Dwindling Australian dollar, shaky import figures and sub-par performance of GDP is making the RBA think along these lines. Economists agree that the low rate of inflation gives the leverage to RBA to do so.
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Low Interest Rates Promote Housing Market Recovery
Property market moves through cycles. You may think- Hang on! We aren’t being told this for the first time. No you aren’t. I am just taking this opportunity to reiterate the degree of truth in this statement. The market moves through crests and troughs and times of trough do not change overnight into peak or boom times. The graph moves gradually.
Borrowing Activity Smashes Past Records
The Australian Finance Group (AFG) has processed mortgages worth $3.6 billion in May. An article on the AFG website reveals that the May figures are a neat 13% above the $3.2 billion recorded for April. It is worth noting that mortgage sales in April had already smashed all past records and so further improvement in May is certainly a cause for delight.
Borrowings have risen across all demography. Western Australia leads the pack with an upswing of 17.7%. It is followed by Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. FHBs, investors and owner-occupiers are all getting into the game.
Trends worth pondering over:
- Phenomenal increase in borrowing activity since Feb
- Loan size reported to be the same as last year
- Loan to Value Ratio trading close to the long term average
- Fixed rate loan activity has dipped slightly
You can read the original article here.
New Home Buyers To Benefit From Change In Grant Scheme
A few major housing grants have changed all across the country. Seeing the Goods and Services Tax weighing down home owners, the government came up with the First Home Owner Grant in the year 2000. It offered $7,000 to FHBs looking to buy a new or an existing home, says Emma Sorensen for the website realestate.com.au.
One major change proposed in the Grant is that it will be only available to new home buyers now. In other words, if you are buying an established home, you won’t be able to avail this government bounty. The Grants may vary subject to your place of residence and date of application.
For New South Wales, the First Home Owner Grant has been changed to the First Home Owner Grant (New Home) Scheme. Through the new scheme, you can avail $15,000 instead of $7,000 now and the cap has been brought down to $635,000 from $835,000. To reiterate, the Grant will only apply for new homes.
Those looking to relocate from their existing metropolitan home to a new regional home can now avail $7000 as part of the Regional Relocation Grant scheme.
You can read the original article here.
Nine quick tax tips for property investors
To be on the right side of law and the taxation system, you need to be diligent about planning and paying your taxes. Ken Raiss for the Property Update gives a few tax tips for the property investors.
Take the Pain out of Moving Homes
Home owners find the experience of moving homes highly stressing. This is partly because they are programmed to see it this way. With meticulous preparation and some common sense, you can make it an enjoyable adventure, writes Andrea Morgan for the London Property News. Morgan asks us to follow these simple tips:
- Start packing as soon as you anticipate a shift (even a whiff from somewhere). Throw away anything that has no utility value even if it is high on nostalgia.
- Use boxes, bubble wraps, sharpies and notepads before you start the packing process.
- Make a list of everything.
- Clean your new home before you move into it with your furniture. Clean the old home too so that you don’t feel ashamed in handing over its keys.
- Start being a control freak. The more you are in control, the richer you will make the moving experience.
You can read the full article here.
Have you recently moved homes? What is your best tip for making it a better experience?
