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New loan activity wanes but refinancing soars With the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) increasing…
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November, 2022
An environment of increasing interest rates After raising the cash rate seven times in a…
October, 2022
Property prices continued to fall in September, but homeowners may be set to get a…
September, 2022
Many people in Australia might be grappling with the rapidly rising cost of living. But…
August, 2022
Just as soaring prices bite at household budgets, businesses are dealing with their own financial…
July, 2022
Borrowers are rushing to refinance their home loans as the reality of rising interest rates…
June, 2022
Is trouble brewing for heavily indebted households as interest rates rise? The Reserve Bank of…
May, 2022
The housing market has lost steam after two years of breakneck growth. Dwelling values in…
March, 2022
After a few years of being largely on the sidelines, housing investors are very much…
February, 2022
Australia’s property market ended 2021 by smashing records, with median house values across all capital…
December, 2021
2021 brought a unique set of circumstances to the lending market for small and medium…
November, 2021
After last year’s off-the-mark forecasts, it’s tough to predict with certainty where the housing market…
October, 2021
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has stepped in to tighten bank lending standards just…
September, 2021
While the economy is probably heading back into recession, the housing market is showing no…
August, 2021
After a year many business owners would rather forget, lending to business is picking up….
July, 2021
The surge in home prices is a boon to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Coupled with…
June, 2021
Despite record low interest rates and government incentives to encourage lending, many small businesses are…
May, 2021
Australia’s house prices have gone through the roof – and there seem to be plenty…
April, 2021
When the housing market is booming, one question is almost always sure to surface: are…
March, 2021
With home prices soaring and many buyers willing to pay hefty sums, vendors are making…
March, 2021
With the housing market boom likely to continue, many questions are now being asked: is…
March, 2021
When the scheme allowing borrowers to defer loan repayments ends on 31 March, there won’t…
February, 2021
Australia’s housing market has returned to record highs after a year of a slight dip…
January, 2021
Many Australian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are finding it frustrating to secure funding for…
January, 2021
Remember the dire predictions of a flood of business failures this year? They’re not likely…
December, 2020
Australia’s housing market is headed for a boom year despite the pandemic. After dropping 2.1%…
November, 2020
After fears of mass defaults at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the worst seems…
November, 2020
After collapsing earlier this year, housing market sentiment has bounced back. Australians are feeling cheery…
October, 2020
When the pandemic took hold in March, stock prices across the globe took a dramatic…
October, 2020
Are Australians spending their savings from lower consumption and early super withdrawals on online shopping…
September, 2020
The Australian Government is planning to roll back responsible lending laws in an effort to…
September, 2020
The number of ‘zombie’ small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Australia is growing as more…
August, 2020
We all know young Australians’ struggle to get a foot in the housing market. But…
August, 2020
Back in April, predictions for Australia’s housing market were dire. Home prices were expected to…
August, 2020
Housing stress is not new to Australians, but the COVID-19 pandemic has made it more…
July, 2020
Problems with finances, employee issues and long working hours are usually the biggest worries weighing…
July, 2020
For decades, overseas migrants and international students have propelled a property boom in major Australian…
June, 2020
With home prices predicted to dive by as much as 32%, will a pandemic-induced property…
May, 2020
Not so long ago, mainland Chinese buyers helped drive Australia’s last property boom. Their investment…
May, 2020
So much has changed these past few months, including the way we work and do…
April, 2020
If you’re a business owner, you’re likely to be feeling a lot of pressure right…
April, 2020
We’ve now started counting the staggering economic cost of the coronavirus shutdown. Two-thirds of Australian…
March, 2020
These are tough times for many Australian businesses. But none have felt the brunt of…
March, 2020
As coronavirus (COVID-19) spreads, encouraging employees to work remotely seems like a sensible thing to…
February, 2020
Still reeling from the impact of the bushfires, many Australian businesses now face the fallout…
February, 2020
As if its impact on life and property weren’t bad enough, the bushfire crisis is…
January, 2020
The Federal Government’s First Home Loan Deposit Scheme has kicked off, promising first‑time buyers a…
December, 2019
A year ago, Australian housing prices were mostly in freefall. Economists predicted them to dive…
November, 2019
Interest rates have hit historic lows and home prices are bouncing back. But housing credit…
November, 2019
Housing prices are rising again. In October, national home values rose 1.2%, the largest monthly…
October, 2019
More older Australians are carrying the heavy burden of mortgage debt into retirement, causing them…
October, 2019
Australia has one the world’s highest levels of household debt, and research shows that adults…
September, 2019
Open banking is here, having kicked off its first stage on 1 July 2019. But…
September, 2019
The number of Australians behind in their mortgage repayments is higher than it has been…
August, 2019
Australian property developers seem to be surviving the housing slump quite well. According to The…
August, 2019
Australia’s official cash rate is now down to 1%. And if we are to believe…
July, 2019
The Coalition Government promised before the federal election to help first homebuyers get into the…
July, 2019
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are turning to non-bank lenders as funding through banks becomes…
June, 2019
Tightening credit supply has been largely blamed for the slowdown in Australia’s housing market. Adding…
June, 2019
Workers typically earn more when they live closer to where the jobs are. But years…
May, 2019
An extraordinary number of Australians are feeling financially stressed and struggling under the weight of…
May, 2019
Now that the federal election is over and the Labor Party’s planned changes to negative…
April, 2019
The mining sector’s fortunes continue to keep several Australians in the upper rungs of the…
April, 2019
Chinese buyers’ interest in Australian property weakened in 2018 but has now rebounded, giving a…
March, 2019
Almost a year after the end of the first banking royal commission hearings, the risk…
March, 2019
Many small business owners are worrying about their company around the clock as accessing finance…
February, 2019
Do short-term letting platforms like Airbnb really drive up rents? The answer probably depends on…
February, 2019
The Australian economy is headed for another strong year – GDP growth is expected to…
January, 2019
Australia faces the biggest risk of a downturn due to household debt reduction among major…
January, 2019
Chinese investment in Australia fell 40% to $8.9 billion in 2017 as the Chinese government…
December, 2018
Is Australia’s population growth increasing commute times in our major cities? Is traffic congestion spiralling…
November, 2018
Australia’s housing market downturn is starting to affect small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s). The common…
October, 2018
Housing prices in the world’s most sought-after cities are slowing down after years of record…
October, 2018
Demand for housing loans continues to weaken as investors have been forced to pull back…
September, 2018
Westpac and its subsidiaries Bank of Melbourne, St.George Bank and Bank SA have announced they…
September, 2018
Mortgage interest rates are going up as lenders struggle to absorb their rising funding costs,…
August, 2018
Australia’s home values fell for the ninth consecutive month in June and are forecast to…
August, 2018
The property boom has once again propelled developers to The Australian Financial Review 2018 Rich…
July, 2018
The foreign buyer boom is over, and we may not witness a repeat of the…
June, 2018
Mortgage brokers may see major changes to their pay model as pressure to limit their…
June, 2018
Large Australian businesses in industries such as mining and agriculture have benefited enormously from China’s…
May, 2018
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is relaxing the reins on investor property lending as…
May, 2018
If your small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) has performed solidly in recent years and you…
April, 2018
Many small business owners use their homes as collateral when applying for a small business…
April, 2018
Levels of indebtedness are on the rise, driven by growing mortgages. But are they a…
March, 2018
Australia remains high on the list of desirable places to live for high net worth…
March, 2018
When interest rates are low and meaningful returns are hard to find, speculators tend to…
February, 2018
Investment bank Credit Suisse reckons Australians are cutting back their spending and increasing their savings,…
February, 2018
The data trickling out of the 2016 Census has given us some investment insights. Let’s…
January, 2018
The cost of housing is again likely to dominate the domestic economy in 2018, but…
January, 2018
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is casting around for clues on how to deal…
December, 2017
In 2010, one Bitcoin was worth less than one hundredth of an Australian cent. Each Bitcoin is…
December, 2017
State economies appear to be in good shape with all states recording above decade average…
November, 2017
Business conditions are generally pretty good in Australia at the moment and the number of…
November, 2017
The chief monetary guardian, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), is also the 800-pound gorilla…
October, 2017
The investing mantra has always been diversify, diversify, diversify! In essence, it means that if…
September, 2017
Cryptocurrencies have promised much but delivered few real-world benefits – until now. In fact, it’s…
September, 2017
The expansion of the global marketplace is bringing investors to Australia’s door as political uncertainty…
September, 2017
Jawboning, or trying to influence markets through pointed commentary, is one of the weapons financial…
August, 2017
Predicting the end of the housing boom is one of the most popular games in…
August, 2017
The big winners of the ongoing property boom are the state governments. In NSW alone,…
July, 2017
An item in the Federal Budget that hasn’t received much coverage is the plan to…
July, 2017
When Donald Horne coined the phrase ‘the lucky country’ in 1964, he was being sardonic,…
June, 2017
The housing market is facing less pressure from foreign investors, with buyer numbers more than…
June, 2017
Pricking Australia’s housing bubble will take more than isolated tinkering with lending rates and jawboning…
May, 2017
“This levy’s in. It’s staying. It’s a fair and reasonable tax on the banks.” That’s…
May, 2017
There’s one fact that may mean an increase in official interest rates is not on…
April, 2017
Sydney ranks 10th on a list of the world’s most expensive cities for luxury residences,…
April, 2017
Despite all the blustering and gnashing of teeth about the new US President, optimism about…
March, 2017
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is getting trigger-happy about housing investment. APRA Chairman Wayne…
March, 2017
Apparently, it’s not a matter of if Australia loses its coveted AAA credit rating, so…
February, 2017
The mortgage lending market is showing no signs of cooling, data released by the Australian…
February, 2017
Low interest rates are meant to stimulate the economy, which in turn is meant to…
January, 2017
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has tacitly recognised how tough the world is getting…
December, 2016
’Twas the night before Christmas and all was silent ’cept the murmuring of central bankers…
December, 2016
Buying confidence in two of the most downtrodden markets has jumped, with new research showing…
November, 2016
The financial services regulator, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), recognises there is a problem…
November, 2016
Sydney office rentals are set to soar, according to the Knight Frank Global Cities 2017…
October, 2016
Perth and Darwin are the top places to claim tax loses on property, but several…
October, 2016
The release of the latest GDP figures gives us a good excuse to look at…
September, 2016
We need some fresh thinking to protect us from the next economic shock. The Reserve…
September, 2016
Sydney’s CBD is steadily falling into foreign hands. Independent global property consultancy Knight Frank’s latest…
August, 2016
Are more units being built than the market can handle? This month’s revelation by the…
August, 2016
The office market is running hot in some cities . . . The services sector…
July, 2016
Cutting the time spent in the naughty corner is not enough… No one likes the…
July, 2016
Any event that causes uncertainty and possible loss of money results in a ‘flight to…
June, 2016
The world is awash with debt and we’re running out of solutions… Interest rates…
June, 2016
More pressure on banks may make it harder for businesses to get loans… The best…
May, 2016
Real estate prices are easing and that’s causing some concern… “If enough people think…
April, 2016
The high cost of housing in the capital cities remains a political hot potato and…
March, 2016
Brisbane the place to invest The property market is cooling and sellers no longer have…
March, 2016
Apparently we had a Federal Budget ‘emergency’ in 2014. Crisis was the narrative, and politicians…
February, 2016
The long-expected cooling of the property markets appears to be under way, with values falling,…
February, 2016
The big four banks have suddenly found that money is getting more expensive and their…
January, 2016
When you look for signs of economic growth, there are a lot of signals to…
January, 2016
“The future ain’t what it used to be,” said Yogi Berra, and if the unpredicted…
December, 2015
Part 3 of the series on Australia’s looming debt danger In the first part of…
December, 2015
The Chronicles of Debt It is close to ten years since America’s housing bubble burst….
November, 2015
Part 2 of our series on Australia’s looming debt danger. Australian mortgage holders are under…
November, 2015
Part 1 of a three-part series on Australia’s looming debt danger It’s no surprise to…
October, 2015
Global economists and investors are not only worried about when the US Federal Reserve will…
October, 2015
The housing boom is likely to start deflating over the next 12 months, the latest…
September, 2015
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has warned that Australia may be heading into a recession. “There’s…
September, 2015
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has made some big moves to ensure the safety…
August, 2015
The era of easy money is drawing to a close as financial markets prepare for…
July, 2015
Property prices have been powering the news cycle of late as they start to reach…
June, 2015
As the Sydney and Melbourne residential property markets continue to power on the back of…
May, 2015
Something significant happened in China on April 20th – Kaisa, a Shenzen-based property developer, finally…
April, 2015
Headlines concerning soaring property prices in Sydney are now almost a daily occurrence. However all…
April, 2015
The mining boom has masked Australia’s weakening budget fundamentals. With windfall revenues from mining taxes,…
March, 2015
The GFC has spawned a new norm of sub-trend growth. In the US, growth is…
February, 2015
After many months of feverish discussion about the drivers of the Australian property market, Federal…
February, 2015
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is in a bind. Meagre growth, lacklustre jobs figures…
December, 2014
From the US producing more oil than Saudi Arabia, China becoming the World’s largest economy…
December, 2014
The RBA has left the cash rate on hold – again. Considering the nosedive in…
October, 2014
Predictions of a housing market bubble have run rampant this year. Fingers have been pointed…
September, 2014
Australian household debt to income reached a historic level of 177% in April of this…
September, 2014
Australian residential property market update: Is it the end? Introduction It looks like the Australian…
August, 2014
Murray’s Misdiagnosis: Analysis of the Interim Report of the Financial System Inquiry Reading through the…
August, 2014
The RBA’s decision to leave the official cash rate at 2.5 % marks the 10th…
July, 2014
Whichever way you look at it, Australia has come to a crossroads. With the near…
July, 2014
China, Australia: What Lies Ahead? It was good news in the beginning of June when…
June, 2014
Australian Residential Property Market Update The activity in the Australian residential property market has captivated…
June, 2014
There is no doubt the residential property market is red hot. The latest data from…
April, 2014
QE and Ultra Low Interest Rates: What Happens When It Ends? After five years of…
April, 2014
The latest data on the commercial property market is out. RPData shows quarterly sales increasing…
March, 2014
By virtue of good management or good luck, Australia had a comfortable ride through the…
March, 2014
The GFC caused major chaos for housing markets around the world and spurred downward spirals…
February, 2014
Commercial Property Markets Looking Up In 2014 Australian economic growth was below trend in 2013….
February, 2014
Hot or Not? The Australian housing market The newspapers tell us that the residential real…
January, 2014
Assessing the future of the Lucky country Australia is often described as the lucky country. …
January, 2014
Boom or Bubble? The Australian housing market In 2008 University of Western Sydney Economist Steve…
December, 2013
Is Deflation Inevitable In The EU? The European Union looks set on a path to…
December, 2013
Today we look at the latest data released by the RBA and ABS to 30…
November, 2013
Teetering on the edge: will America plunge into deflation? There is no prize for…
November, 2013
How will Australia grow? Important data released about the Chinese economy in June of this…
October, 2013
Chinese Bulls Vs Bears There are two main schools of thought amongst global economists on…
October, 2013
Has the Australian compulsory superannuation policy failed? Twenty-one years ago, Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating…
September, 2013
Australia Exposed to Slowing Economies In 2009 Kevin Rudd announced that Australia had avoided the…
September, 2013
Why Is Everyone Rushing Into Bonds Again? In February the financial press was alight with…
August, 2013
Where To From Here For Home Values? According to the RP Data-Rismark Home Value Index…
August, 2013
Macro Update – Q2 2013 If there was one word describe Q2 2013, it would…
July, 2013
The High Cost of Building in Australia The cost of construction in Australia is amongst…
July, 2013
Wild Ride for ASX200 At the beginning of May, with the end of the 2013…
June, 2013
2013 Federal Budget – Facts Without the Political Fiction On Tuesday night Treasurer Wayne Swan…
June, 2013
Three Aussies in the Top 10 Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have all made the global…
May, 2013
Australians have been making compulsory superannuation contributions under the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) scheme since 1992….
May, 2013
Cyprus: The Tail Wagging the European Dog Bank closures and account forfeitures in Cyprus have…
April, 2013
The AUD reached parity with the USD for the first time in recent history in…
April, 2013
Winners, Losers And The Impact Of Immigration On The Housing Market RP Data recently released…
March, 2013
The US Sequester The Australian financial press has recently been filled with articles on the…
March, 2013
Ratings Agencies Highlighted But Downgraded After many decades of relative public obscurity, ratings agencies have…
February, 2013
Outlook for Interest Rates in 2013 The RBA’s decision to cut rates in December was…
February, 2013
Australian Inflation: Behind The Headlines Headline inflation in Australia is currently sitting comfortably within the…
January, 2013
Global Debt: Australia vs The World Global debt levels are at all time highs. Governments,…
January, 2013
Australia’s Housing Affordability Crisis According to the 8th Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey Australia still…
December, 2012
If you look at most of the available media coverage, it would appear that the…
December, 2012
Despite the general expectation that we will see modest recoveries in housing starts, mining and…
November, 2012
Monetary policy makers looking to protect Australia’s 21 consecutive years of recession-free economic growth have…
November, 2012
In recent years central banks around the world have played increasingly active roles in directing…
October, 2012
With the world economy being viewed at something of an inflection point, and widespread disagreements…
October, 2012
Stock Markets around the globe ended the September quarter in positive territory, as supportive central…
September, 2012
Recent declines in the retail environment and the market’s constant focus on European financial instability…
September, 2012
The month of August ended on a positive note with investor sentiment encouraged by the…
August, 2012
Recent data has shown that the Sydney shopping district has become the third most expensive…
July, 2012
Global stock markets are consolidating near their lows for the year as investor sentiment looks…
July, 2012
Property developers in southern Australia are using the current mining boom to look for for…
June, 2012
Equity markets saw a modest rise after projection polling in Greece showed that pro-bailout parties…
June, 2012
Housing prices in Australia have fallen to their lowest levels in six years, according to…
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