Indeed – you would imagine there will be an increase in the default when rates do rise in the future, especially those leveraging to the new peaks of the market.

As usual there are risk mitigants those people can take – ie fixing if they are exposing themselves to mortgage stress above x% interest rates.

Correct – so not a major issue in the scheme of things.

Just about all the lenders are having to review their living expenses calculations, so this style of calculation will most likely become the norm in the near future – so I doubt it’ll be a localised issue for NAB. They still maintain one of the higher borrowing policies for borrowers with existing debt with other lenders.

Quite often clients will use defects on a building and pest inspection to marginally negotiate their contracts down lower. Realistically though an unconditional offer would likely get you that lower price or even lower again, so I don’t particularly see this as a ‘strategy’.

It’s very common for properties pre-90’s to have asbestos, just about every property I own would no doubt have asbestos within them.

Asbestos in and of itself isn’t a scary building material – it’s what you do with it that can cause issues. if it’s in good condition (not falling to pieces) and not in an area where wear and tear may change that,…[Read more]

While you’re at it – why not just call up the building inspector and ask them the question? They’re going to be the most informed person around who is going to be able to help answer that question.

And even if it were possible, lets be real here. You might save $7wk in the scenario.

A lot of effort for not a lot of gain – work smart, not hard.

In theory yes it’s all just about finding a ‘good’ partner. In reality the way the taxation system and finance system in Australia are setup you are penalised for being in a partnership. Any changes in structure can trigger substantial taxation liabilties, joint debt ownership of investments is HEAVILY detriminental to your future borrowing…[Read more]

Investing with another person? I’ve got some great advice.

DONT. DO. IT.

No upsides, a whole lot of downsides. You don’t gain any real benefit from this, other than reducing your ability to borrow, tie up your ability to make investment decisions, leave yourself open to changing circumstances (what if one partner decides they want to sell – tax…[Read more]

A continually declining population which has been reducing for over a decade, with a vacancy rate which continues to grow, almost three times higher than it was half a decade ago. Not real strong drivers to reverse these trends.

I’m not seeing the value in purchasing in Broken Hill at all.

Good question – the debate on buyers agent vs going it alone is very much determined by the individual, there’s not right or wrong answer.

Dependent on your knowledge on investing, property and the areas you’re looking at, you may be able to find great deals without the added cost, but likewise if you don’t you may be short changing yourself in…[Read more]

What does the lease say? Generally with commercial, you pass on any non defined costs/upgrades/repairs to the tenant.

Nothing fundamentally wrong with using equity to invest in your future.

With personal debt on your residence, even in the future you should NOT use cash for any deposits, instead continue to erode your home loan down with the capital, then pull out the freed up equity as an investment split. This way you can minimise your non deductible personal…[Read more]

Dan – my brokerage has the full panel of commercial lenders, and a number of off panel lenders outside of the aggregator who deal with specialist lending. To be honest it’s much the same as resi accreditations, some of which are actually bundled to the residential accreditation. Likewise there’s always lenders beating down the door to try get five…[Read more]

The referral is called ‘spot and refer’, some lenders run their commercial programs like this, particularly if the brokers aren’t familiar with commercial/write low commercial volumes.

Some of the best commercial products in the market cannot be accessed by going direct to branch. Likewise the usual policy/serviceability/rate comparisons benefit…[Read more]

The idea is that those with high incomes will generally have higher living standards/expenses. It’s more likely they will have more expensive private school costs, cars, holidays etc.

Yes some people may be tight with their money in any income bracket, but the financial system is meant to work on the majority for stability, than individuals.

My only concern with West compared to the other inner/middle ring locations is the increasing supply through said development.

Increased prices are a function of supply and demand. If an area has a progressive development policy which will allow the rapid increase in supply, this can temper prices (with exception to development blocks to a…[Read more]

My only concern with West compared to the other inner/middle ring locations is the increasing supply through said development. I
I
Increased prices are a function of supply and demand. If an area has a progressive development policy which will allow the rapid increase in supply, this can temper prices (with exception to development blocks to a…[Read more]

There are two main factors with any finance deal – EQUITY and SERVICEABILITY (borrowing capacity).

Guarantees for the most part are to resolve the EQUITY issue, the serviceability requirement still remains.

All a lot of misunderstood bruha. It’s related to building work over a certain threshold ($12,000 if I remember correctly), as per norm.

Much ado about nothing.