Economy

The great Australian dream of home ownership could lose its lustre if rental agreements are able to provide a sense of stability, says a Deloitte partner.

At a recent conference, I listened to Andrew Inwood from CoreData. He raised a couple of terms which I have been pondering ever since, and what they will mean to the finance industry.

Australians are rapidly losing confidence in housing and property investors are starting to exit the market as regulatory measures, cooling prices and tighter credit begin to bite.

The chief financial officers of the major banks have reiterated that the banks may have to “charge higher prices” to their customers in a bid to cover the upcoming ‘big bank tax’.

Australians are more likely to spend time investigating the best deals for electronics than home loans, a new survey has found.

A new offshore funding source has enabled one non-bank lender to offer developers a lifeline as banks shy away from the sector and apartments fail to sell.

The question of how a disparity between “elevated” business conditions and a “disheartened” household sector will be resolved is “critical”, a business report has revealed.

The Australian Bankers’ Association has launched an industry-wide reference checking protocol that is aimed at weeding out ‘bad apples’.

The Australian financial services sector is in an eerily similar position to the UK industry before it was hit with a regulatory crackdown, says former Barclays executive Steve Weston.

The challenger bank has today announced that it will increase both variable and fixed mortgage rates by 10 basis points in response to higher costs and regulatory requirements.