Empower Blog

Owner Occupier Appeal: Seven Overlooked Aspects

Hi, Ben here. In this how-to session I want to explore the concept of how we chase down capital growth. Now, if you've listened to Bryce's or my how-to videos before, or checked us out on our podcast The Property Couch, you would know we talk heavily about owner-occupier appeal. We believe owner-occupier appeal pushes the value of property higher s...

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How Do Mortgage Insiders Feel About The Market?

APRA’s approach to managing investor lending has raised some concerns and question marks for the property investment industry. But a new survey conducted by PIPA, as recently explained in Your Investment Property Magazine, proves that property professionals are rightfully optimistic. Ben, also Chair of PIPA, is excited about the level o...

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RBA Rate Decision – June 2017

The Reserve Board met today, and they kept the cash rate on hold for another month at 1.5%. Now we saw May 2017 being a very interesting month in regards to the Federal Budget. It came out, and we did see some surprises inside that Federal Budget. Firstly let's talk about the Bank Levy. This is all to do with what they call budget repair and it'...

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Sky Business News – Your Money Your Call (May 2017)

Ben Kingsley returns to the SKY Business News Channel, Your Money Your Call (YMYC). Joining ‘temporary host’ Lisa Montgomery, Ben and Rich Harvey, discuss sustainable and sensible property investing in Australia. As well as diving into the current property market, the experts weigh in on: Is housing an economic uncertainty? Why do your ...

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Will You Remain Confident In A Changing Market?

I want to talk about confidence in a changing market. Now we've been very blessed to see property prices has grown significantly over the last several years with low-interest rates and a reasonably OK economy in terms of jobs. But we are going to see that potentially change. We are already seeing the regulators and the banks starting to see the ...

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First Home Super Saver Scheme – What is it?

In this How To session, I want to talk about the 2017 Federal Budget. Treasurer Scott Morrison has announced a First Home Super Saver Scheme. Now, this Saver Scheme is all about trying to help first home buyers save for a deposit. Let's look at how it works. Effectively what you can do is, you can salary sacrifice into your super a maximum of $15,0...

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RBA Rate Decision – May 2017

Today Governor Lowe and the Reserve board met, and the kept the cash rate on hold once again in May. That keeps the cash rate at 1.5%, so monetary policy remains on hold, but we now are coming to the month of federal budgets and state budgets. And this is where we start to look at fiscal policy. So what are our state governments and also our federa...

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What Causes Property Price To Fall?

In this How To Session, we're going to get a little bit more serious, and we're going to talk about what causes property prices to fall. Now property prices are again, similar to any type of economic value setting mechanism where demand and supply plays a role. So when you get low supply and high demand, you usually see values increase. It's not di...

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New Initiatives for First Home Buyers (VIC)

In an effort to address housing affordability, and potentially the political pressure around this topic at the moment; the Victorian State Government has drafted some new initiatives to help first home buyers get into the marketplace. Let's have a look at what they are: If you're buying a property up to the value of $600,000, you will no longer ...

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RBA Rate Decision – April 2017

Today Governor Lowe and the Reserve Board met, and they've kept the Cash Rate on hold at 1.5% for April 2017. Now there is a lot of commentary on the marketplace over the last month around property, and I want to get to that in a minute. Let's just quickly wrap up what's happening in terms of the world market and mainly the US. We did see the Cash ...

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Interest Rates 2017: What Investors Need To Know

Ben appeared in Your Investment Property Magazine this April and, as it turns out, there's a whole lot he wants to tell investors about interest rates 2017. Let's face it: interest rates matter. When it comes to your lending capacity and structure, they can make or break how (and when) you invest. Your cash flow can really dive or soar too ... a...

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Tax Structures and Tax Avoidance | What you should know?

Hi, Ben Kingsley here with another How to Session. Today I want to talk about tax and tax structures, and potentially tax avoidance. Now tax avoidance is illegal in this country so it's important to understand what you can and can't do around tax. In the property investment industry, there are a lot of property spruikers out there, and some of the ...

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RBA Rate Decision – March 2017

Today Governor Lowe and the Board met, and they kept the cash rate on hold at 1.5% for another month. Now it was an interesting February in regards to what's been happening globally, and I want to talk about that story because we start to see GDP numbers from around the globe starting to be reported. Let's start with the US. We saw some very goo...

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