Editor’s letter
It appears first home buyers reckon now is a great time to make their move. The latest ABS housing finance figures indicate that first-timers accounted for 18.1% of owneroccupier loans in June. Numbers haven’t been this good since 2012. Investors, on the other hand, accounted for 41% of new mortgage lending in June, their lowest share in seven years.
While the Reserve Bank hasn’t had to move rates to soften the market, other factors have been doing this. And, as Ross Greenwood points out in his column (page 72) , investors are “being diverted to where – for now – there are better returns, namely the stockmarket”.
First home buyers are certainly no fools for jumping in. Last month, we saw our population hit 25 million – 33 years ahead of schedule.
As Money’s chief commentator, Paul Clitheroe, points out in his column (page 10): “The long-term outlook for property is, as ever, all about supply and demand. Those able to buy in this downturn are likely to see a continuation of the past. Wealth and population are growing rapidly. This will drive the next upturn in years to come.”
Money didn’t want to wait too long so we asked the property experts from LocationScore.com.au to find the suburbs with the best growth prospects. Looking to 2020 and using the nine key metrics in their location score algorithm, they were able to scan over 15,000 suburbs and identify 100 that are set to boom in five price brackets.
We hope this cover story takes some of the
guesswork out of picking a property, or at the very least provides you with a good start in your search.
On another note, as we were heading to the printers, the fee-for-no-service scandal hit $1 billion in compensation. It’s one thing to charge a massive fee but quite another to charge something for absolutely nothing.
On the final day of the two-week royal commission hearing into superannuation, the banks were put on notice that they could face criminal charges. You can read more about this on pages 12 and 70, or you can do something about it by moving your nest egg away from the funds where the trustees, as Susan Hely reports, cannot be trusted.