Whether you’re rat running your local streets, or have a knack for always picking the fast-moving supermarket queue – everyone loves a good time-saving hack. Well, today we’ll let you in on a scheme that could get you into your first home years – yep years – sooner!

When you’re saving for a first home, growing a 20% deposit can be a tough challenge.

It’s certainly not made any easier by national property values soaring higher each month and cost of living challenges.

But there is one potential solution that has seen 156,000 first home buyers, single parents and regional Australians buy or build a home of their own over the past four years – it’s the federal government’s Home Guarantee Scheme (HGS).

The HGS helps eligible first home buyers and single parents buy a home sooner by requiring only a small deposit.

Who doesn’t love a tax cut? Most of us are now only weeks away from saving on our tax bills, with Stage 3 tax cuts to kick in from 1 July. But another key advantage is that the tax cuts could give your borrowing power a nice boost.

The upcoming Stage 3 tax cuts have received plenty of attention – some good, some bad – so we won’t focus on the politics of it today.

But they are still expected to benefit about 13.6 million Australians, and how much tax you might save depends on your income.

A person on the national average wage of around $73,000 will pocket a yearly tax saving of $1,504, says the federal government.

If your income is, say, $100,000, you could expect to save $2,179 in tax each year.

We all love the idea of nabbing a bargain property, but for most home buyers the real issue is whether they’re overvaluing a place – and paying too much in the process.

Buying a home is an exciting prospect, but it’s perfectly natural to have a big dose of nerves given that you’re likely committing to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars (or millions!).

But with a bit of research, and some other handy tips below, you can help protect yourself when the bidding or negotiations begin.

Paying above the odds for a home can have serious financial impacts.

The more you pay, the more you may need to borrow to fund the purchase. That can mean paying higher loan repayments, potentially leaving your budget thinly stretched, especially if interest rates rise again.

Where you put your car keys, who won the footy premiership three years back, the new prime minister of New Zealand’s name – all very much socially acceptable things to forget. Your home loan rate shouldn’t be on that list.

It’s a fair bet that your home loan repayments are one of your biggest household expenses.

Yet it’s surprising how many borrowers haven’t kept up with what their home loan rate currently is.

In fact, a new report by Mozo shows that 42% of mortgage holders have no idea what interest rate they’re paying on their home loan.

And it’s an oversight that can cost home owners dearly.

When it comes to buying investment properties, younger Australians are punching above their weight, with Millennials taking the title as the nation’s most active generation for property investment.

Investors are continuing to flock to the property market, with the Australian Bureau of Statistics saying the volume of new investor loans in February was 21.5% higher compared to a year ago.

Investment loans now make up over half of the growth in new loans over the past year.

But in an unexpected twist, it isn’t older generations of Aussies who are leading the charge to buy rental properties.

New data from the Commonwealth Bank shows Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) accounted for almost half (46%) of the bank’s new property investors in 2023.

You may not feel richer, but if you’re a homeowner, there’s a decent chance your personal wealth has surged over the past 12 months thanks to soaring property values. And it could open up a world of exciting possibilities.

Sometimes you’ve just got to shake your head in disbelief at the resilience of the property market.

Despite a cost of living crunch and higher interest rates, national home prices have somehow ploughed on over the last year and a bit.

CoreLogic says home values nationally are up $71,832 since January 2023 – a jump of 10.2% in just 14 months – which averages out to an increase of $5,130 per month.

To put that into perspective, last financial year the average full-time Australian worker earned $6,565 per month after tax.

Nobody likes missing out on a good thing. But then again, who likes overpaying? So how do you strike the right balance when both fears can work against one another?

The property market rarely stands still. Interest rate movements, the number of homes listed for sale, and even the time of year can all drive shifts in the market.

And change plus commitment isn’t something we’re all comfortable with.

It can even see us put mental traps in place that mean we panic about missing out on a good buy, or alternatively, we convince ourselves it’s better to sit things out on the sidelines.

Let’s take a look at three mind games that can work against home buyers – and how you could beat them.

There’s something very special about moving into a newly built home or putting the finishing touches on a major renovation. Maybe it’s the look and feel of new paint and fresh flooring, or just knowing you’ve kicked a worthwhile goal.

Whatever the motivation, plenty of Aussies are rolling up their sleeves right now, with the value of building approvals jumping 14.7% from December 2023 to January 2024.

Meanwhile, on the renovation front, we’re not just pimping our pads for looks and lifestyle.

Almost half the home renovations carried out in 2023 were designed with a ‘green’ focus to improve energy efficiency, according to Houzz Research.

The upshot is that planning a new build or renovation can be exciting and rewarding.

Spare cash can be tight right now (cost of living crunch, anyone?). But if you’ve still got some savings plus a home loan, there’s a way you could make your surplus funds work harder.

Ever heard of an offset account?

They’re becoming an increasingly popular add-on feature to home loans, with new data showing that homeowners are stashing money in their offset accounts at a record pace.

In fact, balances in offset accounts have increased to 11% of credit limits, the highest share since APRA started collecting data on this particular stat in March 2019.

This essentially means that, on average, people with offset accounts are only paying interest on 89% of their mortgage each month.

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.

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.

PropTrack has developed an interactive property price tool that reveals the median values across different parts of each suburb.

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.

Lending to property investors is soaring once again. We lift the lid on what’s driving investor interest – and what it could mean for the property market throughout 2024.

It looks like property investors are back … and in a big way.

The latest ABS figures show that in December 2023, banks lent over $26 billion in new home loans – and one-third of this figure, a whopping $9.5 billion, was to property investors.

That equates to 36.2% of all housing loans – the highest market share for property investors since mid-2017.

It’s also quite an uptick from December 2020, when the ABS says investors took out just 23.6% of mortgages.

Happy days! The Reserve Bank kept rates steady in February. But a shake-up in the number of times our central bank meets each year is raising questions about how long the rate pause will last. Here’s what we could expect.

It seems fitting that in a month known for Valentine’s Day, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has shown borrowers some love by keeping the cash rate steady at 4.35%.

In reality though, the latest rate pause has nothing to do with romance or affection.

It’s more to do with keeping a lid on rising living costs.

After months of steadily rising prices, inflation looks to be heading south – currently sitting at 4.1%, down from 7.8% in December 2022.

Applying for a mortgage when you’re self-employed may have you jumping through more hoops. But it needn’t deter you from getting into the property market. Here are 4 tips to help you apply for a mortgage like a boss.

Being your own boss sure has its advantages: the flexibility of setting your own hours, building your own business to represent your values, having someone else fetch you coffee…

But when it comes to home loans, you may have more to prove than the average applicant.

You see, lenders may view you as a little more risky. That’s because, in their eyes, you may not have a steady paycheck to make those all-important repayments.

But being self-employed needn’t stop you from getting your slice of the great Australian dream.

Hats off to Australia’s first home buyers! The latest lending data shows they’re refusing to let last year’s rate hikes and rising property values dampen their goal of buying a home. Here are five tips to help you buy your first home in 2024.

You’ve gotta hand it to first home buyers in the current market.

Not only were they faced with 13 cash rate hikes in just 18 months – which can obviously affect borrowing capacity – but property prices still rose 8.1% in 2023, according to CoreLogic.

Still, they won’t be deterred.

The latest lending data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows a massive 20.3% jump in the number of loans to first home buyers last year.

It’s commonly known that the bigger your deposit, the smaller your home loan, and thus, the lower your monthly repayments. But today we’ll look into another way your deposit size could reduce your repayments: by potentially reducing your interest rate.

A question we’re commonly asked (believe it or not!) is “how can I get a lower interest rate?”

There’s no straightforward answer to this one as it usually depends on a myriad of factors, including whether lenders see you as high risk or low risk, the competition in the market at the time and, as we’ll discuss today, how big your deposit is – or more technically, your ‘loan to value’ (LVR) ratio.

To cut through the jargon, LVR refers to how much of your home’s value you’re borrowing.

If you plan to buy a home priced at, say, $600,000 using a deposit of $120,000, you’ll need to borrow $480,000, or 80% of the property’s value. For lenders, this means you have an LVR of 80%.

What exactly can a mortgage broker do for you? Well, we don’t mean to toot our own horn, but we can make your home loan journey a whole lot easier, letting you focus on the fun part: planning for your new home!

The words “home loan application process” can strike fear in the hearts of many.

Trawling through different loan products is a time drain. The bureaucratic tape can be a headache. And let’s not forget banks scrutinising your finances.

But it doesn’t have to be a drag.

The majority of home loan seekers have now cracked the code: turning to mortgage brokers to help them land a loan.

Thought of a New Year’s resolution yet? Or perhaps you’ve broken one already? Either way, check out our list of possible mortgage goals for 2024 – try one, or have a go at them all – to save a bundle in the year ahead.

It’s that time of year when Aussies love to set resolutions.

According to Commonwealth Bank research, as we dive into 2024, three out of four Australians will make at least one financial resolution, often involving plans to follow a budget or spend less.

But when it comes to New Year goals, it’s worth shining a spotlight on your mortgage.

After all, it’s likely to be your largest debt, and setting (and achieving) a few goals for the year ahead can help you pocket savings and become mortgage-free sooner.

The year has flown past, and as our thoughts turn to trees, tinsel and turkey, we’d like to thank all our fantastic clients for your support throughout 2023.

It’s been quite a year, with higher interest rates, soaring national property values (who’d have thought?) and a few welcome surprises including more help for first-home buyers.

There is plenty in store for 2024, and we look forward to partnering with you again to help you navigate whatever goals you have planned in the new year.

In the meantime, we hope you can take the time to relax, unwind and enjoy all the fun of the festive season.

There’s no doubt the next 12 months will dish up its fair share of surprises. But some things never change – we will be here for you in 2024 and beyond.