Author: Loan? Which Loan?

Need a home loan in a hurry? You could be in luck. Plenty of lenders are keen to crunch loan approval times at present – but there’s a lot borrowers can do to potentially speed up the process, too. Finding a home to buy can take time, and when the right place comes along it can feel as though you need to sign the sale contract fast to stake your claim. But from there you’re going to need a home loan, and that’s where timing becomes critical. The good news for home loan applicants is that average turnaround times have reached new record speeds at some of the bigger banks, while processing periods for smaller lenders have also reduced, according to the latest Broker Pulse survey. But don’t let that lull you into a sense of complacency. It’s important to have your loan ready to go by settlement – usually six weeks after you’ve signed and exchanged contracts (however this period of time can potentially be negotiated with the seller). Otherwise, if you don’t have finance s...
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Location may be a big driver of property prices, but in any given suburb a few streets can be all that separates paying top dollar for a home or potentially scoring a bargain. Here’s how to use a tool to find pockets of value in any given neighbourhood. Each suburb has its own median house price, and sites like realestate.com.au can provide a useful guide to median values for a particular postcode. However, the median is obviously only the middle point in each suburb’s dataset – and it’s common for prices to vary widely across a single suburb. Fortunately, there is an easy online tool that can help you identify more affordable pockets in the suburbs you’re looking to buy in. New interactive price tool PropTrack has developed an interactive property price tool that reveals the median values across different parts of each suburb. The price differences can be surprising. For example in Beecroft, on Sydney’s leafy north shore, the median house price is about $2.4 million. ...
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Great news for home buyers! After an extended run of low listings, the number of homes coming onto the market is skyrocketing. So could this have an impact on the property market? Let’s take a look. Take a look around your local suburb, and chances are you’ll see freshly minted For Sale signs popping up all over the place. That’s because a large number of homes are coming onto the market. Research firm PropTrack says the property market is off to a strong start for the year, with the number of new listings nationally on realestate.com.au up 12% year-on-year in January. Melbourne and Sydney had their busiest January in over a decade. Activity was also strong in Hobart, Brisbane and Adelaide, with Canberra experiencing its busiest-ever January for new listings. Only Perth bucked the trend, recording slightly fewer new listings this year compared to January 2023. Why the uptick in listings? The rise in new listings reflects strong demand, very low unemployment and popu...
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