Insights · Page 38 of 40 · FinancialPlus Mortgage Broker Gold Coast

National Vacancies drop in February

Having an investment property without a tenant is the biggest fear of a property investor so it was great news released in the email newsletter from hotspotting.com.au’s newsletter dated 22 March. Figures released by SQM Research revealed that the number of residential vacancies nationally decreased further in February, dipping 0.1 percentage points to record a 2.1% vacancy rate nationally. Year on year, vacancies 0.3 percentage points higher, with the country experiencing a looser rental market than this time last year. Of particular interest this month was Melbourne’s vacancy rate figures, falling 0.5 percentage points in February to a vacancy rate

Rates on Hold

The Reserve Bank of Australia has kept official interest rates on hold for the seventh consecutive month. Analysts said the RBA is keeping a lid on rates to offset rising unemployment and concerns about a slowdown in China. The Housing Industry Association says rates are being kept on hold to boost the non-mining economy. RBA governor Glenn Stevens indicated that the surging Australian dollar would hinder the economy’s adjustment away from mining. There is no doubt that lenders are responding to the rate inactivity with a variety of incentives to attract new customers, with intense competition in the fixed rate

A shared mortgage can cause a few headaches

Having a shared mortgage with someone can cause issues when you try to borrow funds in your own name. This shared mortgage scenario is becoming more popular now as friends often pool resources to enable them to get into the property market. This is because most lenders assume that you are personally liable for all debts that you are a borrower on and take this into account when working out your borrowing capacity. What makes it even worse is that, in the case of say an investment property, the same lenders then only take into account half the rent that

Achieving financial Freedom

With a variety of mortgage reduction techniques available, simple, low-risk fortnightly repayments could prove to be a very effective way to help you reach financial freedom sooner. With fortnightly payments, essentially the concept is very simple. You make a payment every two weeks, there are 26 fortnights in a year, therefore annually you make 13 payments rather than the 12 you would make with monthly repayments. Fortnightly payments seem remarkably simple, yet could make a profound difference in the overall repayments during the loan term. This method of repayment could help you wipe up to four years off your loan

Stop Dreaming – a call to action

Stop Dreaming And Start Doing – Here’s how we can help you! Dreams are a call to action! Look, let’s be completely open with each other… property Investment isn’t for everybody although when asked most people say they wish they had bought more property 20 years prior! Property is not a short-term passive “money maker” but can be a long-term wealth creator. It can be a cornerstone investment for those people that are smart enough to plan for real wealth (although for some it’ s an unimaginable wealth that only ‘other lucky people’ seem to create). Property Investment is for

How bad is the new credit scoring?

12 March hardly sounds like a key date in history. But, for those looking to get a loan, 12 March 2014 could be a key date that determines whether or not this happens and this is due to significant changes in how credit scoring works. The most important step in understanding these changes is to first look at what credit scoring is because I know that it has caused some problems with clients from time to time. In “simple terms”, credit scoring is a mathematical formula that uses complex algorithms to assess a loan application against that person’s score card

Property & lending insights