Rate Hikes: Did I get it wrong?

Markets still think rate hikes are coming. Turn it up. Ok, let me give you a little update. Back in May I noted that the markets and most people were expecting the next move in interest rates to be up. I said they were crazy: I’m way out on my own here, but hear me […]

Another tsunami of money coming? These charts say YES!

The property boom of 2014 might be set to repeat I’m watching ‘the trade wars’ between China and America very closely. And it’s not because I love the theatre of whatever rom-com Trump is acting in, it’s that I think Aussie property could become collateral damage. Actually, that’s not the right term. What’s the positive […]

Interest Rates are already rising

Why I think you might need to be planning for a rate hike in the short term. Slowly, and quietly, interest rates are nudging up. It’s not the RBA this time. The dreaded “out-of-cycle” rate hikes are back. So far it’s been pretty tame. We’re only talking about a handful of smaller lenders, and the […]

Housing debate plumbs new lows

This idea is an attack on seniors and marks a new low in the housing debate. There’s this odd idea that retirees have to play their part to help fix the affordability crisis. It flared up again in this year’s budget, as some people criticised the plan to give extra funding to allow older people […]

RBA says IO loans are A-OK

RBA flags that tight credit conditions have probably served their purpose. I’ve heard a lot of people say recently that Interest-Only (IO) loans in Australia are our version of sub-prime. In case you’ve forgotten, because it is over ten years ago now, sub-prime mortgages brought down the housing sector in the US during the GFC. […]

Investors become collateral damage

How tough is the credit environment right now? This tough: The Royal Commission is practically unearthing the equivalent of bodies in barrels in the financial sector. The CEO of AMP is gone, more will probably (and should) follow. This is all a good thing. It was pretty clear to everyone that the banking sector had […]

APRA- bunch of spankmonkeys

  APRA is just not doing us any favours. If you want to know what’s behind the multi-week decline in Sydney property prices, there’s only one culprit: APRA. APRA – the bank regulator – has been tightening the screws since the middle of last year, going hard on investors and interest-only lending. APRA threatened the […]

Lots Of Government Money Going Into Property

Where is government money going now? The First Home Owners’ Grants (FHOGs) weren’t particularly popular. Well, they were if you got one. They were great. But as far as economists went, they weren’t seen to be all that fabulous. Effectively the government just poured a whole lot of cash into the housing market, via the […]

The tipsy top-end could topple

Should we be worried about the bubble in commercial property? One of the key concerns last year was that an oversupplied high-rise apartment market might weigh heavy on the market overall. So far, as much as we’re seeing any fall out from this, it’s been fairly contained. It certainly hasn’t been the house of cards […]