Mortgage Prison • Refinancing • Home Loans Mortgage Prison: Why You Can Afford Your Home Loan but Still Can’t Refinance You are paying your mortgage. A cheaper home loan exists. Yet when you try to refinance, the new lender says no. It sounds ridiculous, but it can happen. The term mortgage prison describes borrowers who
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Australian Mortgages • August 2026 • Home Loan Market Home loan applications are falling. But what exactly did the banks expect? Home loan applications are falling sharply across Australia, with the country’s major banks reporting significant declines in new mortgage applications. NAB is down around 15%, CBA around 15%, ANZ around 12% and Westpac around
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RBA Update • August 2026 • Home Loans The RBA hit pause — but it hasn’t hit reverse. On 11 August 2026, the RBA cash rate was left unchanged at 4.35%. For mortgage holders, that’s certainly better news than another increase. But borrowers shouldn’t mistake a pause for the end of Australia’s interest-rate cycle. Inflation
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Home Loans • Repayments • New Calculator Where does your mortgage repayment actually go? You make a home loan repayment every month, but the amount leaving your bank account is only half the story. Some pays interest. Some reduces the loan itself. And over time, the balance between the two can change dramatically. Our new
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Loan Location • New Tools • Mortgage Calculators We’ve been rebuilding Loan Location — and there are some very useful new tools to play with We have been giving the Loan Location website a fairly serious overhaul — not just changing colours and moving buttons around, but building better ways to explain home loans, understand
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Property Investment • Negative Gearing • Tax Reform Negative gearing is changing: what Australian property investors need to know before 2027 Australia has changed the rules around negative gearing and capital gains tax, with the main property reforms due to take effect from 1 July 2027. The headlines can make it sound as though negative
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Refinancing • Home Loan Rates • Existing Borrowers Your Bank May Have Cut Home Loan Rates — But Did Your Rate Change? Australian lenders are competing hard for new home loan customers. Yet many loyal borrowers are still paying their old rate while sharper home loan refinance rates are reserved for the next customer walking
Your Bank May Have Cut Home Loan Rates — But Did Your Rate Change? Read More »
Home Loans • Offset Accounts • Borrower Protection Is your offset account actually linked to your home loan? An offset account can be one of the most useful features attached to a home loan. Money held in the account can reduce the balance on which the lender calculates interest. As a result, you may pay
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Property Market • Melbourne Units • Investor Risk Why Melbourne units can be a risky investment — and what buyers need to look out for For years, Melbourne units have been marketed as the affordable way into property investing. Lower entry prices, inner-city locations and strong rental demand have made them look appealing on paper.
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First Home Buyers • Affordability • Government Support Home ownership feels further away — but the 5% Deposit Scheme is quietly getting people in sooner A growing number of Australians are stepping back from buying, with more people shifting from “not yet” to “never”. And when the headlines are full of rate hikes and higher
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