Adam Empringham,
Director of Sales at Image Property.
How healthy is your home loan?
The number one topic of conversation around most homeowners’ dining tables at present is probably interest rates. Well, it’s probably a top of conversation at any time.
There is no doubt that longer term homeowners benefitted from historically low interest rates for more than a decade after the GFC, with rates hitting rock bottom during the pandemic to help shore up our national economy.
Of course, as is regularly reported in the media, interest rates have increased significantly in the past year – up some 3.25 percentage points since May.
Many people are well ahead of their mortgage repayments because they took advantage of the years of low rates on offer, while others have been able to manage the rising interest rate environment by cutting back on discretionary spending.
However, there is a cohort of people – some new homeowners and investors and some existing borrowers – who took advantage of the super low rates during the pandemic and fixed in their interest rates for a period of time.
Many of those loans are likely going to transfer from fixed to variable interest rates in the coming year, which will see mortgage repayments rise significantly in some instances.
For investors, with rents rising due to undersupply issues, the rising repayments are probably less of an issue, but relatively new homeowners are probably starting to worry.
Mortgage Health Check
Cost of living pressures are impacting all of us at present, but it appears that inflation may have peaked, and we should start to see some softening of interest rates ahead.
Until that time, though, what can you, as a borrower, do to ensure you can manage your mortgage repayments?
One of the simplest things to do is to request a Mortgage Health Check, which is a service offered for our clients via one of our aligned business partners.
Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned property owner, we would love to help you work out if your home loan is still right for you so that you can make an informed decision about potentially benefiting from better loan features or a lower rate.
Regardless of the interest rates environment, all mortgage-holders should assess their home loans annually to ensure they are still getting the best deal, with our Mortgage Health Check designed to help them do just that.
Utility comparisons
Another thing that property owners can do to help improve the current cost of living pressures is to investigate whether there are better deals on utilities available.
This is another complimentary service that we offer clients to assist them with lower household expenses each month.
Using our Bill Upload platform will allow you to compare and contrast the various energy options out there.
You simply upload your most recent electricity or gas bill. Then our bill scanning technology will compare your current rates against a wide range of providers.
In less than a minute, you’ll be shown a like-for-like estimate of how much you may save by switching energy deals based on your actual usage – or it could even show that you are on a very competitive deal already.
This is another service that we provide our clients not only to thank them for their continued support but also to assist them during times of financial uncertainty.
