Limited Chance of Negative Equity
By Graeme Salt For most people who buy a home, a mortgage represents the single largest debt they will take on in their lives. But what happens if the market value of a property you’ve bought falls below the amount you still owe on your home loan? This situation is called “negative equity”. In Australia, […]
What to expect this Spring selling season
There are divided opinions about this year’s property market
A crash won’t happen and it won’t make new housing cheap
By Graeme Salt House prices have fallen for five straight months and right now the mood is starkly divided. Is now a good time to buy? Should you be worried? Housing can keep you awake at night for any number of reasons, but there is a floor that is likely to determine how low prices […]
Budget: Only half of investors face tax hike
By Graeme Salt Taxes rise for only about half of property investments under the latest budget – and in many cases they fall. That is the conclusion of research from economics think tank the e61 Institute (linked to University of NSW) Its research followed 920,000 individual housing investments held between 2008 and 2025 and concluded: […]
Is your offset really saving you money?
Offset Accounts
Your next mortgage may not be with a bank.
By Graeme Salt You want to buy a house; your first call is often to your bank. But increasingly, many non-bank lenders are finding solutions to would-be home buyers when the bank says no. Sometimes, highly-regulated banks just won’t lend you enough for the expensive Australian property markets. This image shows the borrowing capacity of […]
Property in 2026
By Graeme Salt Home prices will finish 2026 largely flat across the combined capitals, as higher interest rates and strained affordability see soft to falling prices through the back half of 2026, before a turning point and return to growth late in the year and into 2027. But the result is not a uniform slowdown. […]
When it comes to property, we need a Bex and a lie down.
This week saw a number of separate pieces of research which showed the future for the housing market. There has been much hand-wringing on the state of the property market – with Cotality’s national Home Value Index (HVI) dropping 0.4 per cent marking the largest month-on-month fall since December 2022. But we all need to […]
Are you a winner in this budget?
By Graeme Salt This budget really created winners and loser. It is a first step in tilting the balance in favour of younger, working Australians trying to buy their first home. For decades, the housing market has been geared in favour of older investors such as me. The budget will sweep away many of the […]
Super Budget Wins
By Graeme Salt Self-managed super funds (SMSF) may become the surprise winner in the budget, with investors emerging with relatively superior tax treatment. In the budget, Trusts will be subject to a 30 per cent tax rate. However, the Albanese government has left intact the ability of SMSF (itself a Trust) s to borrow – and […]