I was told its a step up from Wizard’s 100 per cent loan, Rent Buster – offers between two and five per cent of the value of the property over and above the purchase price to cover costs such as legal fees, Lenders Mortgage Insurance, purchase and mortgage duty.
And that after 3 years they drop the prevailing interest rate 1% ??
Rent Buster Plus was being talked about on one of the weekend business shows..i only saw part of it but..it is part of Wizard’s response to changing demographics and the new housing lending needs of borrowers.
“People may find themselves back a square one on the property board for many different reasons, so home loans need to be designed to meet their specific needs,” said Bouris.
“Rent Buster Plus covers the full purchase cost of property up to $500,000, plus associated fees (to a total of $525,000), meaning second time round borrowers can buy their new home quicker.”
For a home priced at $300,000, Rent Buster Plus allows for an additional $6,000 (two per cent) to $15,000 (five per cent) in associated costs.
“Stamp duty alone could reach $10,000 before adding several thousand dollars for extras like Lenders Mortgage Insurance and legal fees, ” said Bouris. “Rent Buster Plus can cover the bulk of these costs for the borrower.”
Rent Buster Plus is designed to encourage borrowers into a positive equity position as soon as possible. For example, the interest rate reduces on their loan by one per cent after three years only if their LVR is 95 per cent or lower and they have maintained a healthy payment history. Also, redraw is not available until the home owner achieves a positive equity position.
“Rent Buster is designed to not only help people into their home quicker, but to encourage them to build equity in their property as soon as possible. Staying on the property ladder is the key objective,” said Bouris.
Notice how the interest rate was conveniently left out…
There has been such products around for years. Other lenders offer more than 105%. It is no big deal.
APerry, to address your comment, this product is marketed to higher income earners who spend on lifestyle and wake up one day thinking it is time to buy property.
They stop renting that $3,000 per week waterfront unit, start eating in instead of restaurant dining every night, lay off the expensive champagne, buy a silver watch instead of a gold watch and take 100% plus loan to buy their home and pay it down very quickly.
The reason i don’t think this product is particularly good is because the interest rate is so high and also because there are 100% loans available that offer far better rates, particulalry if you are able to save 3% of the loan amount.
If you earn enough money for repayments on a loan at 9% for a %500K loan, why would you not wait a few months and save youself thousands. If people can’t dicipline themselves to do this, then i question their suitability for a loan in the first place.
That is true Alistair. Also, there is always the 100% no deposit loans with FHOG where the stamp duty savings (in NSW) and the $7,000 grant will pretty much cover all expenses up to a purchase price of around $250,000. The rates on these are not to bad (around 0.8% – 1.5% more than normal).