Today
Seven ways to help your kids buy property without family fallouts
Generous parents are unwittingly creating a minefield of legal, tax and financial problems that could not only jeopardise their own futures but cause rifts.
- Duncan Hughes
This Month
Home-deposit-lending start-up digitally altered news article in ads
OwnHome has wiped CBA, its own backer, from ads it is running on Facebook and Instagram, which feature a digitally manipulated version of a Financial Review story.
- Nick Bonyhady
One in 50 borrowers facing ‘severe financial stress’, says RBA
The bank’s analysis of almost 2 million loans, covering about one-third of all mortgages, suggests that severe financial stress is limited to a small group of borrowers.
- John Kehoe
Green bank to roll out $1b in cheap loans to retrofit homes
The government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation is moving into retail mode as it looks to cut home owners’ emissions and their energy bills.
- Updated
- Hans van Leeuwen
Rates high, steady in 2024, but supply will soften housing: economists
Don’t expect big change in demand for housing next year due to lending costs, but more properties coming on to the market will trigger weakness.
- Michael Bleby
False dawn of interest rate hopes pushes home loans up in October
Owner occupiers, first home buyers and investors all roared back into the mortgage market in the fourth month the RBA kept the cash rate at 4.1 per cent.
- Michael Bleby
ANZ argues plenty of competition in bid to reverse blocked deal
The bank’s lawyers told a tribunal that the ACCC made an error in blocking the deal, and changes to the lending sector had only boosted competition.
- Lucas Baird
How to make your offset account work harder
These everyday transaction accounts can work to reduce your mortgage repayments by tens of thousands of dollars.
- Lucy Dean
November
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
CommBank decides one-in-four stats worth fighting for
Australia’s biggest bank isn’t fighting the mortgages war on the frontline. But it is fighting.
- Anthony Macdonald
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Four ways the housing crunch gets worse and prices rise in 2024
The big trends likely to emerge in housing in 2024 will increase demand but do little for supply. That’s likely to keep upwards pressure on pricing.
- Updated
- James Thomson
CBA’s mortgage lending book returns to growth
The bank has arrested a shrinking mortgage book, which returned to growth in October as the bank refocused on winning new customers with digital offers.
- James Eyers
How much money are parents lending kids to buy houses now? Take a look
Jarden economists, having surveyed 282 mortgage brokers, estimate 15 per cent of borrowers tapped their parents for financial assistance in the past 12 months.
- Hannah Wootton
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Why CBA’s latest tech push comes back to the mortgage war
CBA’s recent mortgage losses have shone a spotlight on its sky-high valuation. CEO Matt Comyn’s fresh slate of tech investments is aimed at convincing the market it’s the long term that matters.
- James Thomson
- Exclusive
- Proptech
CBA takes on Macquarie in $49b rental payments market
Falling home ownership is boosting the demand for rental properties – and that’s creating opportunity for services to support the rental sector.
- Michael Bleby
- Exclusive
- Mergers & acquisitions
Two Australian fintech deals close as acquisition season kicks off
A Brisbane digital lender has bought out one of its rivals, while TaxLeopard has acquired a firm that provides software to help Uber drivers do their accounting.
- Paul Smith
Why banks spy on your petrol bills
Lenders look at whether you stop short of filling up the tank or start shopping at Aldi to work out whether the home loan is becoming a struggle.
- James Eyers
How an hour, one phone call and six switches could save $32,000
Cost-of-living pressures are hurting young people hardest, so it’s worth seeing where you can get a better deal.
- Lucy Dean
AMP Bank lifts interest rates beyond RBA rise
AMP has become the first bank to increase interest rates for existing customers by more than the RBA’s cash rate rise, as it tries to turn around shrinking profit margins on home loans.
- John Kehoe
- Opinion
- Interest rates
Why rate rises haven’t left households on borrowed time
Savings in offset accounts and workers prospering in the jobs boom mean Reserve Bank hikes are biting fewer people than observers predicted.
- John Kehoe
CBA boss keeps his cool as deposit squeeze arrives
The bank says home loan margins have “stabilised” but CEO Matt Comyn says a fight for deposits is the new challenge for margins as savers chase higher rates.
- Updated
- James Eyers
