Borrowing Capacity Index – February 2024

Borrowing Capacity Index – February 2024

Loanscape has today released its Borrowing Capacity Index for Q2/2024. It shows that the borrowing capacities of Australian individuals and families have stabilised after the sharp decline over the past 2 years. Lower income borrowers continue to be disproportionately impacted by interest rate increases: the family income required to qualify for the average size loan in Australia is 35% higher than 2 years ago.

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Borrowing Capacity Index – November 2023

Borrowing Capacity Index – November 2023

Loanscape has today released its Borrowing Capacity Index for Q1/2024. It shows that the borrowing capacities of Australian individuals and families continue to decline. The more modest decline in the size of average loans being taken confirms that lower income borrowers are being disproportionately impacted by interest rate hikes: the family income required to qualify for the average loan in Australia is now 32% higher than 18 months ago.

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Borrowing Capacity Index – August 2023

Borrowing Capacity Index – August 2023

Loanscape has today released its Borrowing Capacity Index for Q4/2023. It shows that the borrowing capacities of Australian individuals and families continue to decline. The more modest decline in average loans being taken out points to a shift in WHO are taking out new home loans: family income required to aqualify for the average loan in Australia is 29% higher than 18 months ago.

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Borrowing Capacity Index – May 2023

Borrowing Capacity Index – May 2023

Loanscape has today released its Borrowing Capacity Index for Q4/2023. It shows that the borrowing capacities of Australian individuals and families continue to decline.

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Axing stamp duty is a great idea, but NSW is going about it the wrong way

Axing stamp duty is a great idea, but NSW is going about it the wrong way

Republished from The Conversation.

In tax as in many endeavours, it’s easy to work out how things should be; harder to work out how to get there.

In NSW, Treasurer Dominic Perrottet wants to replace the one-off stamp duty on real estate transactions with an annual land tax.

In the long run, this one single reform could produce the biggest possible gains of any tax reform, state or federal.

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None of the justifications for weakening bank lending standards quite make sense

None of the justifications for weakening bank lending standards quite make sense

Republished from The Conversation.

The budget plan to scrap Australia’s decade-old responsible lending obligations warrants detailed examination.

It is hard to see how the stated reasons for easing what’s asked of banks and other lenders make much sense, and the timing is strange.

Introduced in 2009, the responsible lending obligations made it illegal to offer credit that was unsuitable for a consumer based on their needs and capacity to make payments.

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