The latest from Integrity Finance Australia
Patterns and cycles are all around us. Your sub-conscious will be aware of them even if your conscious is not. To ‘see them’ requires an opening of the mind, and a look at the ‘big picture’.
Famously the Fibonacci patterns in nature (google it for a fascinating deep dive!) have been extended to daily use in financial analysis.
Nearly 10,000 people across Australia who have taken out first homebuyer (FHB) loans this year with no intention to live in them amid a growing but necessary trend to get their foot in the door.
New data has shown a 21.4 per cent rise in ‘rentvesting’: first home buyers taking out loans for their first residence, then renting out their new houses and units.
One could almost hear the collective sigh of relief through the nation when the Reserve Bank finally lowered the interest rates! Even if it is only by 0.25% so far, at least it is a starting move in the right direction.
By now that decrease should have flowed through to your bank’s variable rate loan. Have you checked yours?
Recommended for the coffee table - ‘Ikigai’ is a Japanese book focussed on ‘secrets to a long and happy life’. It is a focus on philosophy, health and wellbeing with many ‘short reads’ of interest, and life rules that are mostly just common sense (but then given common sense seems to be not that common these days there is perhaps a real need for books like this).
Read more in our Your Money Matters February Newsletter.
The average Australian has a very short financial time frame.
In a general sense, we can be divided financially into three categories.
Many live week to week, keeping negligible savings aside. Then there are those who think about the months or the years ahead and plan accordingly. But the successful investors and businesspeople think in decades.
Hopefully you see yourself in that third group!
If you are questioning where property markets are heading in 2025, you are not alone! It is currently the most asked question I get. Of course, with Australia made up of multiple different property markets, the full specific answer to that will be very different for every person, but the general trends are interesting and can point to where an individual market can expect to go.
With the 2022 National Construction Code (NCC) update taking effect in Victoria as of May 2024, new homes in the state must now meet a higher minimum energy rating of 7 stars, up from 6, alongside new whole-of-home energy consumption requirements. This shift aims to create homes that are more comfortable, energy-efficient, and affordable to run.
A temporary land transfer (stamp duty) concession for off-the-plan purchases within strata subdivisions has been announced by the Victorian Government. It is only eligible where a contract was entered into on or after 21st October 2024 and lasts for 12 months. Eligibility is based on the date the contract is entered into. It does not matter whether settlement occurs before or after the end of the 12-month window.
