While most Australians dream of owning their own home, the majority of hopeful homeowners admit they don’t fully understand how home loans or mortgage rates work. That’s why we make it our mission to enlighten you during your home buying journey. They say knowledge is power. But this week we stumbled across some interesting stats from UBank’s Know Your Numbers survey. It found that 84% of Australians who are yet to buy a property admit they don’t know enough about how home loans, mortgage rates and deposits work, while 3 in 10 admitted to knowing nothing at all and having no idea where to star ..read more

Keen to buy a vehicle, asset or another vital piece of equipment for your business and immediately write off the cost? Well, you better get cracking, as we’re officially entering end-of-financial-year territory. How time flies. It feels like only yesterday that we were gearing up for the year, and now, it’s all systems go to beat the EOFY deadline. Why the hurry? Well, businesses keen to invest in their future can immediately write off the full value of any eligible depreciable asset purchased, at any cost, under the federal government’s temporary full expensing scheme. But there’s a small cat ..read more

Australia’s biggest bank has hiked its three-year fixed rate for owner-occupiers in a further sign that “the tide is turning on interest rates”. So if you’ve been thinking about fixing your interest rate, it could be high time to do so. Now, we’re not normally ones to write articles about the interest rate movements of particular products with particular lenders. But we felt this one was significant given that the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) is the nation’s biggest home lender, with a market share of about 25%. CBA has increased both its three- and four-year fixed rates for owner-occupiers paying ..read more

With interest rates at record low levels, we’ve seen a big increase in homeowners wanting to refinance this year. So this week we’ll look at some of ASIC’s top tips for refinancing, plus some of our own for good measure. More and more mortgage holders are looking for a better deal on their home loan. According to ABS data, the total number of home loan customers who switched providers last year increased by 27% – from 143,664 in 2019 to 182,016 in 2020. And a further 200,000 Australian families are expected to switch lenders and save in 2021. But there’s switching lenders the wrong way, and sw ..read more

Small businesses in dispute with the ATO over their tax debt will get “a fairer go” under new rules proposed in the federal budget. Meanwhile, one-year extensions have been granted for the full asset write-off and loss carry-back schemes. Let’s break it all down. There’s a lot to digest in this year’s pandemic-recovery federal budget. So today we’ve chosen to focus on just a few key budget announcements we feel may help SMEs manage finance and debt in the years to come. Temporary full asset write-off and loss carry-back extensions Great news for small businesses keen to invest in their future ..read more

Single parents saving for a property and first home buyers are the big winners from this year’s federal budget. Today we’ll break down the three schemes that will help them crack the property market sooner. In recent months there have been signs that first home buyers are beginning to shy away from the property market, as investors return in big numbers to take advantage of optimistic property market price outlooks. So this year’s federal budget focussed on giving first home buyers and single parents a big leg up into the property market through three key schemes, which we’ve broken down for y ..read more

While it might feel like property prices are skyrocketing out of reach, the majority of Australian homes are actually cheaper to buy than rent over the next decade, according to a new report. The latest REA Insights Buy or Rent 2021 Report reveals it is cheaper to buy than rent around 57% of dwellings across Australia, based on modest housing price growth of 3% per year over the next decade. Now, the results differ by property type and from state to state, which we’ve broken down further below. But across the nation, the report found that just over half of houses are cheaper to buy over the ne ..read more

Property prices climbed at a breathtaking pace in early 2021, which has been good news for homeowners and heartbreaking for house hunters. However, there are seven key signs that the pace of capital gains has peaked, says CoreLogic. Now, it’s important to note that CoreLogic is not suggesting that housing values are about to dip. Far from it. Rather, CoreLogic believes the housing market is “moving through a peak rate of growth and the pace of capital gains will gradually taper over coming months”. “Overall, we are expecting housing values to continue to rise throughout 2021 and most likely th ..read more

Businesses across the country are purchasing new equipment and vehicles in record numbers, as companies big and small embrace the strongest market conditions seen in years, according to NAB data. And with the end of the financial year approaching quickly, we’re expecting demand for equipment and vehicles to remain strong, with businesses looking to invest in their future by taking advantage of the federal government’s temporary full expensing rules (more on that below). NAB believes the demand for new equipment is the result of a bumpy 2020, when businesses were forced to ‘pivot’ and innovate ..read more

Tens of thousands of HomeBuilder applicants around the nation can breathe a sigh of relief after the federal government extended the construction commencement requirement from six months to 18 months. It’s fair to say that the success of the HomeBuilder program caught a lot of people off guard and, as a result, contributed to a surge in demand for manpower within the residential construction industry. In fact, more than 121,000 Australians applied for the HomeBuilder grant, which is expected to support around $30 billion worth of residential construction projects. “The number of new houses tha ..read more