News Australia

Ongoing discount loans lose momentum Borrowers’ preference for fixed rate home loans is continuing at an unrelenting pace regardless of recent cash rate cuts, national loan approval data from Mortgage Choice has revealed. Fixed rate loans accounted for 24% of all new home loan approvals during December 2011, up from 21% in November and well [...]

Home loans by value fell in October and remained flat over the year, suggesting the housing sector remains stagnant. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said on Monday that total housing finance by value fell 2.5 per cent in October, seasonally adjusted, to $20.458 billion. The ABS data also showed that the value of home [...]

The Reserve Bank of Australia board has cut the official interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.25 per cent, giving mortgage holders and borrowers a pre-Christmas reprieve. The RBA announced the rate cut at 2.30pm AEDT today following the board’s final meeting for the year. It’s the second interest rate cut in as many [...]

Economists are divided on whether borrowers will get a second interest rate cut in as many months on Tuesday. Seven of the 14 economists surveyed by AAP say the RBA will cut the cash rate to 4.25 per cent from 4.5 per cent on December 6. On Melbourne Cup day, the Reserve Bank of Australia [...]

Homeowners have been granted a long awaited reprieve, with the Reserve Bank opting to drop interest rates by 25 basis points. The cut continues what is becoming a tradition, with the Reserve Bank changing the cash rate on Melbourne Cup Day for the sixth year in a row. It is also the first time in [...]

The central bank has decided to keep the cash rate unchanged this month and has opened the door for possible future cuts. The decision was expected, with all 15 economists surveyed last week by AAP predicting the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) would keep rates on hold at 4.75 per cent on Tuesday. The central [...]