Mortgage Loans, Home Loans, Bad Credit Home Loans

First Home Buyers are likely to line up for a new home loan offer by the Yellow Brick Road, introduced by Mark Bouris the founder of Wizard Home Loans.  The new mortgage product is specifically for the first home buyers market segment. This loan will enables first time borrowers to bypass the genuine savings requirements.

The new First Step home loan, introduced today, allows first time buyers to source a home loan deposit from a range of sources including family gifts, an inheritance or a tax return.

The chairman of Yellow Brick Road, Mark Bouris, said the major banks’ savings requirements were making home loans very prohibitive to the vast numbers of First Home Buyers.

“The big banks often require a borrower to show that their deposit is the result of a savings plan, which can make it much harder for people to buy their first home,” he said.

Saving histories in their own right are not a good indicator of a borrower’s ability to save and meet repayments. People’s circumstances and choice made do change over time.

“More important factors are their income and their credit history, not the origin of their deposit,” he said.

The banks are insisting on a demonstration of a savings history for their own reasons. The main  reason being that such a policy is helping the banks to collect a large amount of depositor funds.

Yellow Brick Road will offer the First Step home loan via its partnership with Gateway Credit Union which currently administers its home loan range launched in December last year.

The product will offer a LVR of up to 95 per cent with a variable interest rate of 6.59 per cent.

According to George Livermore, group executive of Core Logic, Australia is not facing a house price bubble, rather a severe housing affordability crisis.

George Livermore said that the US property market faced a burst bubble during the GFC when mortgage holders preferred to default on their home loans because of the dip in unemployment and the non-recourse mortgage trend.

“Some markets, like in Arizona, Florida and California, suffered a big price drop because underlying demand was never really there, so prices fell to where the underlying demand was,” he said.

US had gone through a decade of overbuilding, over four million too many houses and unfortunately it’s going to take some time to correctly match up demand with supply.

Unlike the US market, Mr Livermore said Australia’s issue was more about average Australians being unable to buy into the property market because of a lack of supply.

“Affordability is not the same issue as a housing bubble,” he said.

“I hear talk about a housing bubble but I don’t think Australia is facing one.

“The Australian government needs to address the issue of affordability through further supply,” he said

If the supply issue is addressed then the current price pressure on housing will be alleviated.

According to main players in Australian real estate, investors are showing a lot of interest in off the plan apartments with expectations of substantial price growth over the coming years.

Ray White is seeing a 6 per cent increase in investor interest in property as shares weaken and with the end last year of the boosted first-home buyer’s grant.

Analyst Michael Matusik predicts that Australian investment properties will flood the market in the near term, leading prices to soften.

An Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute report this month said 80 per cent of investors buy for long-term gain, but at least half sell within five years because of cashflow problems or disappointing capital growth. One in four investors sells within 12 months.

Developers in Sydney are reporting strong demand for new residential developments as a result of stamp duty concession introduced by the NSW government in 2010.

Tim Casey of St Hilliers Group says his company has had 650 people interested in apartments at the Caritas site in inner Sydney’s Forbes Street, for which marketing begins this week.

And Harry Triguboff’s Meriton Apartments reports strong interest for proposed apartments at the former Seven Network site at Epping, with more than 300 applications.

As there is still a shortage of housing in Australia, the property market crash predicted by some experts is unlikely to occur.  However a slowdown in price growth is quite possible.

With the 2010 federal election being tomorrow, the Coalition has announced a “Plan for Real Housing”.

Both the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) and Housing Industry Association (HIA) have welcomed the release after criticising the major campaigning parties for failing to acknowledge housing throughout the election campaign. Australia is in the midst of a housing crisis with a real shortage of available housing and no relief in sight.

“The REIA supports the Coalition’s proposal to encourage states, territories and local government to release land, cut red tape, improve planning processes and reduce charges,” REIA president David Airey said yesterday.

Under the Coalition’s plans, states and territories would have to set targets for land release and dwelling approvals and would risk missing out on Federal funding if targets were not met. This proposal would certainly encourage all states to act swiftly in ensuring that Australia’s housing demands are met.

HIA’s chief executive Graham Wolfe said a cooperative approach between the different levels of government was an essential ingredient for delivering “long overdue improvements” in the supply of new housing but he stressed it would “take leadership and ownership of the components that inhibit supply”.

HIA also expressed a view that the government should establish a Federal Housing and Development Ministry, separate from social housing. This ministry should focus on addressing the country’s housing shortage as well as the issues of housing becoming unaffordable to First Home Buyers.

The Federal Housing and Development Ministry should take responsibility for coordinating Commonwealth, State/Territory and local government regulations and policies, and for cross portfolio collaboration with the view of increasing housing supply and improving housing affordability.

As part of a recent trend by a number of second tier lenders to up the lvrs available on their mortgages – Provident Capital has brought out a 95% home loan for owner occupiers.

The home loan also includes LMI fee capitalisation and a line of credit secured Visa facility with a limit of up to $20,000. There is also an unsecured Visa facility of $10,000 available to all borrowers.

Steve Sampson, Provident Capital’s head of lending distribution said that the move “demonstrates Provident Capital’s commitment to our partners in the broker market, and helps homebuyers reach their dream of home-ownership”.

Provident have a point of difference in the market place.  They are offering conditional approval within 48 hours. Should this take them longer, the borrower will receive $100 in compensation.

Provident is the latest in a rash of lenders to launch a high-LVR owner-occupier mortgage this week: others include Adelaide Bank, National Mortgage Company, Iden Group and Homeloans.

The ever-increasing home values and the growing costs of borrowing have generated a housing affordability decline by more than 30 per cent over the past year.

According to the latest HIA-CBA Housing Affordability Report, affordability declined by 9.1 per cent in the June quarter across all Australian capital cities and 6.7 per cent in regional areas.

The index in question calculates home affordability by combining interest rates, household incomes and home prices . The results came in 32% down on same time last year.

“As housing affordability slips away, so too does the chance for many Australians to realise their dream of owning a home,” HIA chief economist Harley Dale commented yesterday.

It is imperative that the Federal Government makes this issue a priority.

“There has been a marked lack of commitment and attention in the current federal election campaign given to  the significant hurdles prospective First Home Buyers face. Helping Australians afford a roof over their head is surely a fundamental responsibility of government,” Harley Dale added.

According to the HIA-CBA Index, the largest drops in housing affordability were recorded in Sydney (-9.1 per cent), Regional Victoria (-9.0 per cent), Regional Tasmania (-8.8 per cent), and Adelaide (-8.7 per cent). “Key federal policy priorities need to include a program to reduce new housing costs such as inequitable taxes and charges, better planning approvals systems, and a dedicated federal housing and development ministry to coordinate policy across all sectors and levels of government,” Mr Dale said. The systems currently in place are slow and cumbersome.  They do no encourage further development and the creation of additional housing at affordable prices.

National Mortgage Company will now offer its loan products through the Elders Home Loans Group, after the diversified financial services group elected to add NMC to its panel of providers.

In a statement issued today National Mortgage Company said its home loans would be available via the Elders Group as of Monday 23 August.

Fernando Lemos, National Mortgage Company head of sales, said the group was “hugely excited” about the move and would be proud to be part of the Elders Home Loans Group.

“We see the synergy of both our businesses being one of quality and control and we see it as a natural fit,” he said.

According to a Sydney development lobby, the low levels of new home construction in NSW is pushing rents up more than nine times the rate of inflation.

Based on quarterly figures compiled by the Real Estate Institute, the average Sydney rents rose by $10 a week in the past three months, and by $20 a week in the past year.

According to Urban Taskforce Australia, which represents property developers, the median weekly rent for a two bedroom home in inner-city Sydney suburbs is now $540 a week – $25 more than what it was three months ago.

A three-bedroom in the same region on average sets renters back $725 a week – up $25 in three months.

These increases are now at levels which are more than nine times the rate of inflation.

One bedroom homes at Willoughby, North Sydney and Mosman command average weekly rents of $400, while at Waverley and Woollahra, in Sydney’s east, one bedroom homes are, on average, $420 a week.

It is clear that the high rents and the fast levels at which rentals are growing are due to a lack of housing and low levels of construction.

While there is a shortfall in all states the Sydney market appears to be the hardest hit.

“No Australian capital city approves less new homes per head of population than Sydney.

In the past financial year, Mr Gadiel said 15,000 apartments and townhouses had been approved in Melbourne, compared to 11,000 in Sydney.

Urgent government action is required to remedy this situation.

HOME buyers looking to enter the property market for the first time should wait until spring to to make their move according to real estate experts. There is an expectation that prices will begin to move south as the weather warms up.

According to a report in the Australian, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide have all recorded reasonably healthy auction clearance rates this weekend, with Brisbane – where private sales outweigh auctions – the only exception.

Australian Property Monitors are reporting that In Sydney, 61.3 per cent of the 384 homes listed were sold at auction, an increase of 5.3 percentage points on last week’s 56 per cent clearance. In Melbourne, 60.8 per cent of the 555 homes listed were sold, a drop of 6.5% compared with last week’s 67.3 per cent.

The most expensive sale  in Sydney was a four-bedroom, 873sqm property at Vaucluse, which sold for $3.7m.

Melbourne, had it’s most expensive sale in Malvern East which was a four-bedroom, three-bathroom, 1920s residence , selling for $3.4m.

Managing director of SQM Research Louis Christopher said property prices would begin to slide as early as next month.

“Because winter is a traditionally slow period, we’ve not felt the full extent of the struggles in our market to date,” Mr Christopher said.

“We’re seeing a drop in total sales . . . sellers should seriously consider their options if they’re planning to trade up over the next 12 months, but for buyers it will be a great time to buy.”

MFAA have come out in support of Deferred Establishment Fees claiming that their presence in the Mortgage Market actually promotes competition between lenders with the result being lower interest rates for the borrowers.

Deferred Establishment Fees are a mechanism that facilitate the non-bank sector to offer the most competitive interest rates possible to borrowers.

“Non-bank lenders provide consumers a strong alternative in the lending market, in many cases offering very competitive interest rates,” MFAA chief executive officer Mr Phil Naylor said yesterday.

Unfortunately if non bank lenders were required to remove Deferred Establishment Fess their interest rates would no longer be attractive to the consumer and they would be forced out of business thus perpetuation a ‘monopoly-like’ environment.