Anyone who is considering property investment or has already taken the plunge will know that the process is full of potential pitfalls and dodgy characters who will say anything to get you to part with your hard-earned cash. For many buyers, the capital cities have become unaffordable, so the search for a property must begin [...]
There's been a lot of talk recently about housing oversupply in some markets leading to a possible price collapse. But now global credit rating firm Fairfax Media has spoken out to say the only thing we really need to worry about with relation to the Australian housing market is unemployment levels. Ratings agency S&P Global [...]
Your Facebook friends could be influencing you in ways you never realised. You've probably made a decision about which clothes to buy or which food to eat because of Facebook influence, but now a new study suggests that even the amount we're willing to pay for a house could be linked to what appears in [...]
Given the choice of a tiny inner-city apartment or a spacious beachside family home at the same price, which would you choose? With city property prices continuing to rise, many buyers are looking further afield and finding they can get a lot more for their money. One such couple is Brad and Fleur Frost, who [...]
Homeowners who have been worried by all the recent talk of a household debt crisis can breathe a sigh of relief. HSBC has published a paper which predicts that although the rise in Australian house prices will continue to slow into next year, a household debt crisis is unlikely. However, there is still a chance [...]
In case you missed it, we're talking about RBA's announcement the other week that they had cut interest rates from 2% to an all-time low of 1.75%. Real estate agents are reporting that this cut – the first we've seen in a year – has buyers splashing their cash like there's no tomorrow. “It’s pretty [...]
Fickle foreign buyers seem to be losing interest in Sydney and Melbourne, with Brisbane having caught their attention instead. NAB has released its residential property index, revealing that foreign buyer interest in Australia's largest two housing markets, NSW and Victoria, is cooling off. The markets are, for now, being sustained by a promising sentiment among [...]
How many hours have you spent dreaming of your perfect home? The size, the layout, the colour scheme, the location… Well it turns out you might have to think again, because whether you're planning on living in the city, in the suburbs, or by the beach, there are some locations where all the money in [...]
Budget night has been and gone. But what does it mean to us, the average guy or girl in the street? Politicians across the country hit the airwaves, print and internet to tell us in complex language that it's all ok. But that made us even more confused on what it means for us, our [...]
Well actually, he was being very charitable. Philanthropist James Fairfax, formerly of newspaper fame, has donated his huge home, worth around $20 million, to the National Trust of Australia. This makes it the largest donation to them on record. And not only that; he's also handed over another few million to help with the upkeep [...]
Have you considered how the price of chicken, petrol and postage stamps can influence your mortgage interest rate? They are in fact more closely connected than many people realise. That’s because these commodities — along with alcohol, clothes, education and more — help inform Australia’s Consumer Price Index, which is the biggest single contributing factor [...]
The brakes are finally starting to come down on the Australian property market, with a tiny amount of growth recorded over the last few months. Nationally, growth has come in at just 0.2% for that period, with the Sydney market taking a leaf out of the Coles playbook: “Prices are down”. And it’s the first [...]
