Finance & lending
Home loans, interest rates and borrowing power, and what they mean for Queensland buyers and owners.
After the June hold: what a 4.35 per cent cash rate costs borrowers
The Reserve Bank paused on 16 June but would not call the peak. For Queensland borrowers the pause leaves repayments where they are and the income needed to buy still rising.
Queensland refinancing enquiries fall 8.8 per cent in a year
Credit bureau figures for May show fewer Queenslanders applying to refinance or to borrow for the first time. Three rate rises have turned a busy January into a quiet autumn.
Lenders trim variable rates days before the June Reserve Bank meeting
Eleven lenders, Bank of Queensland and Queensland Country Bank among them, have cut variable rates since the May rise. Forty now advertise a rate under 6 per cent.
Brokers now write 81 per cent of new home loans, a record share
Industry figures for the March quarter put mortgage brokers behind four in five new home loans. How the channel works, and where Queensland's own banks stand in it.
APRA keeps the 3-point home loan buffer as rates and costs climb
The banking regulator has left its lending rules unchanged and told a Senate committee the system is sound. What that means for a Queensland borrower's loan size.
How lenders work out borrowing capacity: income, expenses, buffer
A lender does not ask whether you can afford today's repayment. It asks whether you could afford one three points higher. How income, expenses and debts feed the sum.