Remember all those scary headlines about the “cliffs” we were going to fall off during the Covid pandemic? There was a fiscal cliff, then an interest rate cliff, and there was an unemployment cliff where unemployment would jump to double digits. By the way… no one fell off those cliffs, did they? Well…now there’s talk…
Articles by Rita Thomas
is a Property Strategist with an accounting background and over 30 years’ Commercial Banking experience. She is a passionate property investor who enjoys helping her clients create wealth through property investment using Metropole’s strategic approach.
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Now that the housing market is slowing, with national home prices falling for the first time since the pandemic onset in May, can we consider the market a buyer’s market? Demand to buy property greatly outweighed the supply of properties for sale, but as the Spring selling season kicked into gear that changed and the…
Did you know that a new billionaire was created every 30 hours during the Covid pandemic? This is according to a new Oxfam report which reported that 573 people became billionaires during the pandemic, with 5 new billionaires minted in Australia in a single year. Billionaires have been profiting Of course, we know that during…
Australia’s pandemic property boom looks like it has come to an end, with new figures showing house and unit prices either stagnated or fell for the first time since the June quarter of 2020. And the price shift, amid jitters over rising interest rates, has affected some types of properties more than others. 2-bedroom houses…
There is an old saying in real estate circles that you should buy and never sell. While that sounds good in theory, it’s not a sound strategy in practice. Firstly, most investors will consolidate their portfolios at some point in their journeys to pay down their loans and start living more financially free lives. There…
Australia’s third largest home loan lender, NAB, has today hiked fixed rates for the fourth time this year. NAB has made its fourth round of fixed-rate hikes for 2022, with the major bank increasing rates by up to 0.60% for owner-occupiers and 0.80% for investors. The major bank has increased owner-occupied rates by 0.60% for…
Looking at buying your first investment property? Or maybe your next one? I’m sorry to say, but there’s no generic, one-size-fits-all approach to property investment. Residential real estate, as with any other investment vehicle, requires an individualistic approach. In other words, you must identify and address your own specific needs, goals, and circumstances in order…
Three of the big four banks have hiked fixed rates again, as the cost of fixed-rate funding continues to surge north. Australia’s largest bank, CBA, recently increased fixed rates by up to 0.50 percentage points for owner-occupiers paying principal and interest, but all the way up to 0.90 percentage points for some investors. This is…
I watch changes in consumer sentiment carefully because when consumers feel financially comfortable and wealthy they spend more and this helps the economy move on. And when consumers feel less confident they put their hands in their pockets and don’t make big financial decisions and in general spend less and in some ways this is…
Mortgage rates are on the rise in Australia as funding costs and speculation about an impending RBA cash rate rise in the next few months puts pressure on banks. While there was no change in the cash rate at yesterday’s RBA meeting for April, rate hikes are coming. The big four bank economists have forecast…