My own experience of two first home buyers 13 years apart shows that servicing hasn’t changed all that much. It's as hard today as it was 13 years ago. But what it doesn’t show is the sizeable part of our population that are locked out of the housing market altogether.
Growing house construction is a substantial boom for the economy through extra business for materials manufacturers and distributors, architects, inspectors and so on.
Some people retain a negative view on the housing market on the basis of an expectation that the economy is stuck in recession. Actually, the recession ended two months ago and there is little chance of it returning then morphing into a depression.
There’s no doubt that there will be some good buying opportunities over the next twelve months. To make the most of them you will need to be cashed up and ready to pounce. It’s about having the confidence, knowing you can land the deal, but also not misreading your lenders and their lack of appetite for risk.
During the global financial crisis, eternal optimists always looked for green shoots. There’s no better time to look for green shoots than spring, so what’s going on?
It’s time to pull out the crystal ball and talk property prices. With house prices falling in Sydney (4.5% in the past year), the question is, will the same thing happen here? For this post I thought I’d develop a bottom-up ‘economic’ model.
As we’ve been expecting for some time, house prices have softened and continue to soften.
Even at the best of times, selling a property brings a lot of uncertainty – so what’s it like out there now that the market is a little cooler and what can you do to make for an easier ride?
Staging: It's something of a divisive subject in the property world. Namely, should you do it, and if you do, how much?
After nearly five years here at Squirrel, mortgage adviser Lindsay Hill has a lot of experience getting people to where they need to be in the property market.
What if you could pay off your mortgage in 15 years? It’s easier than you think.
It is a buyer’s market. What does that mean when it comes to negotiating the purchase price? How do you make sure you get a great deal?