Wayne Dickerson

Australia’s inflation rate fell to 6.9% in October, down from 7.3% the month before, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The reason the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has increased official interest rates for seven consecutive months – and is likely to do so again at its next meeting, on December […]

The latest interest rate data from the Reserve Bank makes for interesting reading. Naturally, as the graph shows, interest rates have been rising in recent months. What might surprise you, though, is that the interest rates being paid by new borrowers (bottom line) are significantly lower than those being paid by loyal customers (top line).

A record number of Australians are turning to mortgage brokers for their home loan requirements. In the three months to September, brokers facilitated a record 71.7% of all new residential home loans, according to data from research group Comparator. That compares to 66.9% in the September 2021 quarter and 60.1% in the September 2020 quarter.

Good news for first-home buyers. The federal government has increased the number of places available in its First Home Buyer Guarantee program for this financial year from 35,000 to over 36,000. Approximately 1,100 places that weren’t used in 2021-22 have been added to the 2022-23 allocation. The First Home Buyer Guarantee lets eligible buyers purchase

This could be a great time to buy a property, as many vendors are reducing their prices to attract interest. Vendors discounted their properties by a median of 4.3% in the October quarter, according to CoreLogic. That compares to just 2.9% the year before, when the property boom was in full swing. This is the

Searches from overseas property seekers on realestate.com.au have hit record levels. PropTrack senior data analyst Karen Dellow said that in March 2020, as the pandemic began, overseas searches fell 15% and then remained relatively static until border restrictions ended in late 2021. But now the situation is very different. “In the past four months, combined

One of Australia’s leading property data researchers believes the rental market is about to become even more challenging for tenants in capital cities. SQM Research has reported a 17.5% increase in asking rents across Australia in the year to November 20, due to a decrease in the number of empty properties available for rent. That

Buyers are gaining more and more market power, with properties taking progressively longer to sell, according to CoreLogic. Between the October quarters of 2021 and 2022, the median time it took for a property to sell increased from 22 days to 36 days. That included an increase from 21 to 33 days in the capital

While an enormous number of homes are currently being built, the number of new homes being sold is trending down, according to the Housing Industry Association. The HIA has reported that new home sales in October were 22.8% lower than the month before. HIA chief economist Tim Reardon said that was due to rising interest

Annual wage growth has now increased for seven consecutive quarters, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. After falling to a record low of 1.4% during 2020, annual wages growth has steadily climbed to 3.1%: * Dec 2020 = 1.4% * Mar 2021 = 1.5% * Jun 2021 = 1.8% *