How much unpaid work are you doing? Well, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Time Use Survey, people in Australia spent an average of three and a half hours a day on unpaid work activities during 2020-2021. This includes domestic duties like housework, food and drinks preparation and shopping, as well as child…
House prices, groceries, petrol, and even flights, Australia’s cost of living has gone through the roof as our economy tries to grapple with surging inflation. Our inflation rate is now over 5% for the first time since 2001 and isn’t showing any signs of slowing. In fact, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Lowe recently appeared…
Queensland’s property market, particularly Brisbane and the Gold Coast, was among the strongest across the country in 2021 with prices growing in excess of 30% in many locations. Even as growth slowed in other parts of Australia, many of Queensland’s housing markets continued to perform strongly in the first half of 2022 buoyed by strong…
New lending for housing has slowed significantly. In fact, fresh data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show a further fall of 8.2% month-on-month in September, eclipsing a drop of 3.4% in August. Obviously, the rapidly rising interest rates have weakened lending demand and buyers’ budgets have shrunk as borrowing capacities have tightened, meaning the…
My property strategy is often classed as a long-term investor. Just to make things clear… my philosophy is to buy and seldom sell, rather than to buy and never sell. Why is that? Well, life has a funny way of bringing changes upon us and often there is not much we can do about it. Similarly,…
How can you cut loan costs if you’re stuck with your mortgage? Well, many mortgage holders have recently switched lenders to cut their loan costs. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that a record $12.8 billion in owner-occupied loans were refinanced to a new lender in August alone. However, according to Effie Zahos, money expert and…
Global property prices are steadily increasing while Australia’s property price decline has picked up the pace, with Brisbane and Adelaide emerging as our strongest markets. Knight Frank’s latest Global Residential Cities Index has revealed that despite Australian property prices falling from their peak in recent months, the two Aussie cities stand out among the rest….
Have you considered moving back in with your parents? Well, according to Finder’s latest research, more and more Australians are moving back in with their parents as the cost of living continues to spiral. In fact, the survey with 1,058 respondents revealed that 13% of Australians – equivalent to 858,000 households – have had an…
The value of new home loans being approved has plummeted by $2.26 billion in a month, according to the ABS. In September $25.14 billion worth of home loans were approved, down 8.2 per cent from the month before in seasonally adjusted terms – the lowest value since November 2020. Owner-occupier lending took the biggest hit,…
When you are looking at potential investment properties, it can be difficult to be objective. Real estate is such an emotional asset class — far more so than investments like shares — and, all too often, buyers lead with their hearts. Instead, a better strategy is to try to approach it like a property valuer,…
