Good Morning and Happy Tuesday!
This is like groundhog day isn’t it…
The week that was finance last week wasn’t earth shattering, with all eyes focussed on Victoria and NSW and their COVID cases.
The finance news week centred around refinance and how ‘Australians are leaving the majors’ or ‘Aussies switching lenders in droves’. Which is unsurprising really, given low rates and the horrific slow progress the majority of the larger lenders are experiencing right now.
Which I guess surprises me when a bank like St George come out with a promotion like they did this last week. St George launched their own first home buyer special with $1 Lenders Mortgage Insurance. Great idea, and will likely have First Home Buyers interested. The special applies to loans for FHB’s that are equal to 85% LVR and up to $850k which would save a buyer a significant amount of money at that level.
The issue for me recommending them to someone who needed to complete or exchange anytime soon would be that St George couldn’t do it anytime soon. They like any of the big banks are anywhere up to 18 days (or longer) from lodgement to pickup. What this means for a buyer is anywhere up to a month before they even look to be conditionally approved. Putting them firmly out of the race. Should they want pre-approval then in my own experience with a couple of borrowers that could mean much much longer.
It really makes me wonder sometimes why a lender would spend so much money on a program like this, knowing that they are not even in the race because they cant even get to a file. It seems like an expensive pointless branding exercise to me. Maybe Scotty from Marketing was here..
Rates haven’t really changed all that much in the week gone by, with the focus from nearly all lenders on fixed rates and they remain fairly static with 2 and 3 yr fixed at 2.29% from many lenders with a few still below like Teachers Mutual 3yrs fixed at 2.19%.
The ACT government is finally live with its registration page for the Home Builder Grant https://www.revenue.act.gov.au/covid-19-assistance/homebuilder-registration With a note saying that a more detailed application is coming soon. One thing to note is that it notes that applications much be in by the 31st of Dec.
2 more sleeps till the mini budget, I guess we all wait in anticipation for what may come. We can only hope that we don’t end up back in lockdown.
Have a great week, I am always here if you have a scenario.
JC
Scenarios and interest rates quoted above are suggestions and constitute general advice only.
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