Empower Blog Property & Financial Investment

The Affordability Question

Most people will agree it has done its job of getting more home buyers into the market and the follow on effect will be a mini-construction boom, once the land titles are registered and the new homes are under construction. Couple this with record low interest rates and it’s only natural that a spike in sales and demand would lead to price val...

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Home Prices on the UP & UP!

Australian home prices grew by 3.7% in the September quarter - the highest quarterly growth seen in six years, are the results being reported in Australian Property Monitors – Septembers Quarterly House Price Series Melbourne led the country with a 6.1 per cent increase over the June quarter.  The average house price in Melbourne was $487,249...

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RBA Rates Decision – October 2009

The Reserve Bank has lifted interest rates by 0.25% from their historical 40 year lows, due to rebounding economic outlook and change in sentiment.  The RBA believes we are past the worst of the economic downturn, yet the historically low rates were originally implemented with the view that the economy and unemployment were going to get worse than...

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Buy now or wait ‘til Post First Home Owners go?

The evidence is in, property prices are on the rise, as I predicted at the start of the year. Demand, due to low interest rates, improved affordability and the First Home Owners (FHO) Scheme’s has lead to a recovery in the price of residential property. Yet the big question is will they been sustainable or will demand drop off post FHO’s? Well ...

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Owners Corporations…..

Body Corps’ as they used to be known are important entities with important responsibilities. The Owners Corporations Act 2006 [the Act] commenced on 31 December 2007. The new regulatory regime aims to improve transparency and financial accountability in the management of owners’ corporations, as well as new dispute resolution provisions. ...

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Lender Mortgage Insurance Prices to Increase by up to 20%

This is terrible news for those looking to get into the market for buyers looking to borrow greater than 80% of the value of the property.  Our two mortgage insurers, who work in conjunction with all lenders by insuring the borrower as a risk to the lender, are increasing this Mortgage Insurance premium to the lenders.  There is already evidence ...

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‘Time is Profit’

Last month I wrote about how timing of a purchase was not so critical if you have a long term view of your investment property and you bought in a sound location, such as a major city like Melbourne close the major employment centre. This month I am focusing on the message that time is profit when it comes to the capital growth measure for property...

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State of the Property Market – Melbourne & Sydney

Congratulations to those holding property anywhere where the majority of sales are occurring via Auction, because your house or unit value is on the rise. Based on Property Market Activity its going to run pretty hard for the next 3 months, until interest rates increase from these record lows and market sentiment for property declines, but this is ...

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Is it Time to Invest Again?

There is no doubt that residential property has withstood the doomsayers’ predictions of massive price falls of up to 40%, following the GFC.  The reasons it has stood up are well documented; Record low interest rates, a housing shortage, high rental demand, growing population, government stimulus in the form of First Home Owners incentives etc....

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RBA Rates Decision – August 2009

The Reserve Bank has once again decided to keep the cash rate on hold this month.  The cash rate remains at 3%.  The overall consensus of the market is now at the cross roads with many commentators now calling the bottom of the rate cycle. The RBA minutes of July’s meeting made mention of their belief the worst of the GFC is behind us, and mone...

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To Fix or Not To Fix?

With Australia missing out on a ‘technical’ recession, given the positive March quarter of GDP, most mortgage holders are now focusing their attention on interest rates.  Have we reached the bottom of this cash cycle and if so, should we be looking at locking in a low fixed rate, before rates start moving up? The possible answer to this deb...

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Negative Gearing – Worth Keeping

It has been well documented that currently the federal government is conducting a full review of the taxation system, tagged as the ‘Henry Review’. As part of this review the government has called on public submissions to assist in this review. These submissions provide State Governments, Community Groups,  Business Interest groups etc the...

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RBA Rates Decision – July 2009

The Reserve Bank has once again decided to keep the cash rate on hold this month.  The cash rate remains at 3%.  The overall consensus of the market is that the cash rate is still forecast to drop to a low of around 2.50% later this year, as it is anticipated that unemployment will rise later this year and into 2010. The recent positive econom...

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