Economy

Interest-only lending changes driven by increased regulatory scrutiny are creating processing headaches for the non-major banks.

More than one in five NSW households will be in "housing need" by 2025, 5 per cent higher than the national average, a new study has revealed.

A “sharp correction” in the housing market is unlikely to occur in the next two years, but an “orderly unwinding” is on the cards, S&P has said.

Cheaper funding and recent rate hikes are increasing the “implied spread” of the big four, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia, with funding costs tipped to fall even further.

Industry players have indicted the federal government as having “no interest” in solving declining housing affordability for young Australians.

Demand for fixed rate home loans has risen to its “highest level in more than three years”, according to Mortgage Choice’s latest research.

Genworth Mortgage Insurance has reported a 34.7 per cent drop in its net profit for the first half of 2017, reflecting lower sales of insurance and an increase in delinquencies.

Around $55 billion worth of loans have been reclassified as owner-occupied since July 2015, the Reserve Bank of Australia reports, with $1.3 billion alone switched in June this year.

The percentage of young Australians who own their own home has collapsed by 10 per cent since 2002, while average household debt has risen by nearly 100 per cent.

Housing affordability levels in Sydney are “declining past a critical level”, with householders needing “more than two standard Sydney incomes” to service their home loans, the HIA has ...