Dec1 Roundup

Well it’s done. We got there…. To December that is hahah

The week just gone has seen a few things happen especially in Victoria with buckets of stimulus being thrown around especially in the housing industry.

Likewise with the extension to the homebuilder grant, albeit giving it a slight haircut from applications after Jan 1 – March 31 2021 to $15k, as well as an increase in the cap in NSW and Vic for contracts after this date too.

One of the most concerning articles and issues for brokers of the last week has been the looming BID. The legislation is quite complex as you can imagine and there is a glaringly obvious issue with one particular scenario. This involves the packaged products scenario (so the packages from a bank that offers cheaper rates, plus offset accounts and the issue here being their packaged credit cards). The way the legislation is written means that under BID I cannot recommend this product to a client. This is because as a broker we have no visibility on what the packaged credit cards actually are and there are often many to choose from with all of their various barnacles. I know that the FBAA and the other industry bodies are trying to get the Australian Bankers Association (ABA) to understand and adjust as well as trying to get ASIC to adjust the legislation. It would appear that the banks are waiting for ASIC and vis versa in a typical wait to see who goes first game at what will be the detriment of consumers should they not get all sorted quickly. I guess that this will be a matter of watch this space.

July and Sept also saw the broker share of market rise to its highest levels topping 60%. Great for brokers and for competition in the market. I do like to think (to steal a line from the Hon Don Chipp) that we as brokers keep the bastards honest.

I hope this week see’s you all stay cool. It is certainly heating up out there.

JC

Scenarios and interest rates quoted above are suggestions and constitute general advice only.