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Rate hikes and soaring fuel prices aren’t dampening home buyer enthusiasm, with a strong majority of Aussies still believing the time to buy is now. We look at why home-buying sentiment remains so high. Petrol prices have been stealing the headlines lately. But behind the scenes, Aussie homes have been notching up fresh gains. Over the past year,  home values rose 9.9% nationally  – the fastest 12-month growth since June 2022. And despite the current fuel crisis and  two rate

Is the grass really greener on the other side? Maybe. Australia has seen a surge of investor activity in recent years, with investment loans reaching record highs. But as home prices rise, plenty of investors are looking beyond their own backyard and making interstate purchases. Australian homes have  delivered plenty of pluses for investors in recent years .  Vacancy rates are low and rents are rising  across much of the country. Strong price growth has seen  more than 93% o

Buying a first home doesn’t have to mean years of eating beans on toast while you scrape together a 20% deposit. Here’s how you could break into the property market with just a 5% deposit.  The Australian government’s 5% Deposit Scheme has been around since 2020, and in that time it’s been a game-changer for  more than 300,000 first home buyers . That’s because the scheme offers a chance to buy a first home with a 5% deposit – or as little as 2% for single parents. The scheme

If you’re in the market for a home, you may have noticed there hasn’t always been a whole lot of choice in recent months. Fortunately, it looks like property listings are really starting to pick back up. Here’s how to make the most of the increase in choice. Sure, price is the obvious big barrier when it comes buying your first home. But that’s often got a whole lot to do with a lack of supply (less supply than demand typically = higher prices). And in fact, Westpac says supp

More bad news for mortgage holders around the country: the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) today raised the cash rate for the second time this year to 4.10% in a 5-4 split decision vote. How might this impact your monthly mortgage repayments?  Hardly seems fair to hike the cash rate by another 0.25% with petrol prices so high right now (which one could argue will reduce discretionary spending) – but it wasn’t enough to sway the majority of the RBA board, unfortunately, which