Australia housing bubble

[blueoval]

Building companies Millbrook Homes, Bentley Homes and Toplace collapse, entering liquidation or voluntary administration

https://7news.com.au/business/proper...ion-c-11243068

[raised by monkeys]

Originally Posted by raised by monkeys

Ive just locked this in with the help of our broker.
If anyone in SA looking for a new broker i can pass you on his details. He's been super helpful on a number of accassions. Very efficient and up front.

This fell through due to time lapse in processes. However, if anyones looking to refinance CBA have an online only home loan at 5.59% but due to being online you wont get broker support

https://www.ratecity.com.au/home-loa...r-less-than-80

[Citroënbender]

So the broker wasn’t agile enough or the institutions were too slow?

Either way, probably a stress nobody needed.

[T3rminator]

Originally Posted by raised by monkeys

This fell through due to time lapse in processes. However, if anyones looking to refinance CBA have an online only home loan at 5.59% but due to being online you wont get broker support

https://www.ratecity.com.au/home-loa...r-less-than-80

Hey monkey, usually online only banks will give you a discount. A few of these come in different names, but are a subsidiary of the big 4. Just gotta watch out how easy or hard it might be to access your $$$ on a daily basis. Me broker did warn about time lapse, I basically had 48 hours to turn over documents so he could submit it to get the quoted rate and cash back.

[raised by monkeys]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

So the broker wasn’t agile enough or the institutions were too slow?

Either way, probably a stress nobody needed.

Essentially, evaluators took a long time and the deal lapsed. However, with variable rates its likely they wouldve changed with the lastest RBA rate hike.

[raised by monkeys]

Originally Posted by T3rminator

Hey monkey, usually online only banks will give you a discount. A few of these come in different names, but are a subsidiary of the big 4. Just gotta watch out how easy or hard it might be to access your $$$ on a daily basis. Me broker did warn about time lapse, I basically had 48 hours to turn over documents so he could submit it to get the quoted rate and cash back.

I have used gateway before who were really good and their accounts have OSKO. Getting started was a pain as it was doing it on my own and there was a fair bit of paperwork and years later when the rates began to drop they couldnt match big banks.

[T3rminator]

Hoping for less buollocks forecasts post Sept.

[MITCHAY]

Originally Posted by T3rminator

Hoping for less buollocks forecasts post Sept.

Lowe officially out end of September for his deputy

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by MITCHAY

Lowe officially out end of September for his deputy

Who will do nothing different because Lowe hasnt been making captain calls.

[T3rminator]

Anyone coming off a fixed rate and onto the cliff, speak to your bank about a rate review and retention bonus. Don't just automatically accept the default "discounted" rate.

My current bank calls me today, and immediately offered a rate drop plus a retention cash back, after my broker had lodged the refinance settlement forms

I said the rate offer is not good enough, and the retention is only half of what I'm going to get with the new bank, so they are going to call me back on Monday with another offer.

[blueoval]

It's in the banks best interest to make a deal. Too many could easily just claim squatters rights or walk away from the house if the repayments are completely unrealistic. There are literally millions of people on the knife edge once coming off fixed rate and back onto variable.

[fordomatic]

NAB literally don't care about losing a customer, after speaking in depth with my broker, he's refinanced 40% of his NAB customers that aren't business accounts.

My broker rang on my behalf and they wouldn't budge. I then spoke with NAB they only dropped it .25%. I asked them to drop it .75% to be in line with the market rate. Long story short they told me I was high risk and valued my asset at 30% below it's actual worth. No matter what I said on the phone, even saying to look up prices sold from that area in the last 6 months for the same asset, they wouldn't budge and said I was high risk as my loan was more than the asset was worth. For the record, the loan is much less than the asset is worth in the current market.

So I told them that I'll be refinancing in November and I will be putting the full amount owed on the loan into offset so they wont get another $1 from me. They said to go for it.

So true to my word I put the full loan amount into my offset for that asset. I then called a week later and said I'd remove the offset if they dropped another .5%, they said no and that I'm still high risk. I've never missed a single payment in 12 years for any of my loans.

So, the offset will be staying in and i'll no longer be with NAB for that loan, come November 1st. Already been pre-approved for refinancing from two places with great rates and 4k cash.

[Citroënbender]

What a bunch of idiots.

I’m also wondering - assuming you disclosed crypto assets - if that ticks another box on their risk assessment as if a gambler.

[blueoval]

Originally Posted by fordomatic

NAB literally don't care about losing a customer, after speaking in depth with my broker, he's refinanced 40% of his NAB customers that aren't business accounts.

My broker rang on my behalf and they wouldn't budge. I then spoke with NAB they only dropped it .25%. I asked them to drop it .75% to be in line with the market rate. Long story short they told me I was high risk and valued my asset at 30% below it's actual worth. No matter what I said on the phone, even saying to look up prices sold from that area in the last 6 months for the same asset, they wouldn't budge and said I was high risk as my loan was more than the asset was worth. For the record, the loan is much less than the asset is worth in the current market.

So I told them that I'll be refinancing in November and I will be putting the full amount owed on the loan into offset so they wont get another $1 from me. They said to go for it.

So true to my word I put the full loan amount into my offset for that asset. I then called a week later and said I'd remove the offset if they dropped another .5%, they said no and that I'm still high risk. I've never missed a single payment in 12 years for any of my loans.

So, the offset will be staying in and i'll no longer be with NAB for that loan, come November 1st. Already been pre-approved for refinancing from two places with great rates and 4k cash.

sometimes you have to play their game particularly when its your money.

I remember in the early 00's my wife used to work for a well known bank and she told me there was business people and those who had hundreds of thousands if not millions in the bank that were able to get special (realistic) deals from their branch.

If those deals were not met to the customers satisfaction, the customer would pull out all their money and go elsewhere. Meantime, the branch manager of the bank would get hauled over the coals by their regional managers for letting high value customers like this walk as it looks bad on their books. It then reflects on the regional manager because targets were not met. They lose their bonuses for the quarter/year.

I dont know how it is nowadays, but I know someone pulling out significant coin from a branch can fair badly on the managers especially if you are a high value customer.

[b0son]

Originally Posted by fordomatic

NAB literally don't care about losing a customer, after speaking in depth with my broker, he's refinanced 40% of his NAB customers that aren't business accounts.

Doesn't surprise me.

We have adjacent properties for our business, and tried to swap the title being used as security for our overdraft from one property to the other. Took months of back and forth, and in the end, they'd only let us move the security if we also added the house as additional security. Unsurprisingly, we didnt take them up on it, and they were actually surprised we wouldn't.

[T3rminator]

Originally Posted by fordomatic

NAB literally don't care about losing a customer, after speaking in depth with my broker, he's refinanced 40% of his NAB customers that aren't business accounts.

They are the ones now literally trying to pay me to stay. If they were smart they would have come to me 2 to 4 weeks ago, I would have taken the deal and stayed. I actually didn't mind their service and their products. But now that I've gone through all the paperwork and have a slightly better deal, there is no incentive.

[MITCHAY]

Yep looks like only choice I have is to go new broker and lender.

2 weeks since I asked them to push a rate reduction through after they another 2 weeks before that. Over a month since I first reached out and nothing. I'd like to say the service has been **** but it's been nonexistent. I get that they would be busy, but that's taking the ****

Old broker is on holidays so perhaps I try going direct to the bank themselves.

[Citroënbender]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

They’re offering pretty good term deposit rates as well. Almost to the point where I wonder if it’s sustainable.

A month off rolling over one chunk, got to say ME Bank are still offering the best rates but the reviews, hmm! Is it worth the extra $150 interest over a year for the kind of grief people are writing of?

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

A month off rolling over one chunk, got to say ME Bank are still offering the best rates but the reviews, hmm! Is it worth the extra $150 interest over a year for the kind of grief people are writing of?

Be interesting to see what the concerns are.

I've been with ME Bank, as both a lender (oops, wrong end of the transaction!) borrower and for savings, since 2000 and I've never had a negative experience with either their products or their services. I'd rate them 10/10.

[Citroënbender]

That’s reassuring, thanks.

I realise people often take to Trustpilot, ProductReview etc when they have an axe to grind but my main concern after reading some of the reviews was - if after 12 months they weren’t the most competitive - how hard was it going to be for shifting money elsewhere? Complaints generally seemed to be around account access, getting locked out first wrong try, help desk just an unhelpful script reader, that sort of thing.

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

That’s reassuring, thanks.

No probs. I'm just telling it as I have experienced it. But I appreciate that everyone's experiences can be different.

Addressing the issues you've listed, again, based on my own experience:

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

account access,

I find access to be really easy. I mostly use the ME app, as it does most of the basic things that I need to do: check on account balances, move money between my everyday day account, savings account and home loan; make payments via bpay or via direct debit, including setting up new payees; see what the current interest rate applicable to my account is. There are some things that you can't do in the app, and need to head across to the website to do. For those, I can simply navigate to the web page from the app, noting that I still need to put in my login credentials (which is a good thing, IMO). That happens so infrequently, I can't even think now of why I need to head across to their webpage!

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

getting locked out first wrong try

I can't recall ever being locked out of the online banking portal. I'm sure I've got my credentials wrong, so it's not like there's never been the opportunity for me to be locked out. Has worked no probs for me.

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

, help desk just an unhelpful script reader

I think it's like most help desks: it depends on who you get. I won't lie, there have been the occasional time where I've got someone who hasn't been as helpful as most, but that is pretty rare. Most of the time, I get good service when I need to speak to someone. There are times it can take a while to get through, but it's better than most over the phone services I deal with. But, again, I rarely have to resort to calling for assistance. I would estimate that to be maybe once every 3 months?

Again, all of the above is just my personal experience, the experience of others may be different depending on the frequency they call upon those services. Hope that helps.

[jstanovic]

My experience with has been good. Had them for my first home loan years ago, basic loan and no issues. Refinaced with them a few years ago and again no issues. Missus has put in wrong password a few times with no issues, simple online banking (I suppose they all are), easy access to redraw - no limit and funds transferred within 24 hours.

[raised by monkeys]

ABC- Mortgage arrears rising as 'at risk' borrowers hit pre-GFC peaks

[b0son]

CPI 6% for the year to June 23, 3.2% annualised for the June quarter. At this rate, we'll be back to target by March 24 quarter.

[T3rminator]

Originally Posted by b0son

CPI 6% for the year to June 23, 3.2% annualised for the June quarter. At this rate, we'll be back to target by March 24 quarter.

Not enough, barely a dint. With Russia's blockade of the grain exports from Ukraine, and the likes of India restricting export of rice, food inflation is going to trend upwards again. Might take a couple of months to kick in.

Apparently, US have got their inflation down to 3%, heard it reported for a fleeting second, so not sure if that was a monthly, quarterly or annual figure.

[MITCHAY]

I finally got back from my broker. Apparently the bank are taking 15 business days now to process these requests. I got the bank notification before hearing from the broker they even put it in let along tell me the result

6.52 to 6.29 so a 0.23% discount even though case is clear for a 5 in front

So I'm 0.5% apart from what I looks like an equivalent package but is that enough to bother. Then again the only way to get a new broker is to refinance.

I could very well lose that discount in the next few days as soon as I got it

[roKWiz]

I heard the other day on the news, good old Meriton were going to go back on fixed price build contracts for most of their clients.

Some bloke was going on about being slugged with a new contract at $250 000 more to build the same thing he had previously signed up for.

[MITCHAY]

Bloke at work has a fixed price contract and so far they haven't hit him for more money. He is at the internal fitout stage and just delayed for a few things. He started building during Covid so they baked in a lot of it.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by MITCHAY

Bloke at work has a fixed price contract and so far they haven't hit him for more money. He is at the internal fitout stage and just delayed for a few things. He started building during Covid so they baked in a lot of it.

Nah, I've heard most of these, are people waiting to start building not already underway.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

I heard the other day on the news, good old Meriton were going to go back on fixed price build contracts for most of their clients.

Some bloke was going on about being slugged with a new contract at $250 000 more to build the same thing he had previously signed up for.

What I reckon Meriton will do is what a lot of companies who have earned bad reputations have done. Change names and rebrand in the hope new customers are deaf, dumb and blind.
The only construction mob I can think of who changed names and rebranded but wasn't dodgey is called shape. They rebranded due to the whole unrelated to them but war thing and public perception. Previous the company was called Isis. They didn't rebrand because of a crap reputation.