Almost ½ of Gen Y buyers will purchase for investment first43% of Generation Y’s upcoming first-time property investors are putting aside the traditional ‘Great Australian Dream’ of a home for now and instead buying an investment property as their first purchase, according to the country’s largest independently-owned mortgage broker. Not only will they ignore the [...]

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THE Australian dollar has reached an 11-week high, benefiting from weakness in the US dollar and growing uncertainty surrounding America’s debt crisis. At noon (AEST), the Australian dollar was trading at 108.83 US cents, its highest value since May 11, and up from 108.13 US cents on Monday afternoon.The domestic currency reached 110.11 US cents [...]

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Australian home owners are among the most indebted in the world, but most had no trouble meeting monthly repayments on their mortgage in the last year, new research shows.A survey of home owners and aspiring first-home buyers in eight countries by mortgage insurance provider Genworth has shown one in five Australian home owners spend more [...]

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Regional differences are emerging in the Australian housing market, with some regions reporting price rises and others seeing values decline.Sydney and Canberra are seeing real estate values continue to climb, but those in Perth and Brisbane falling, according to the latest house market index.In addition, the figures show that cheaper properties are selling better than [...]

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The Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia has urged the government to rethink its controversial ban on mortgage exit fees after the Australian Bureau of Statistics released figures showing competition was further drying up in the crucial financial sector.Housing Finance statistics for April were released yesterday (June 8th) showing a further reduction in competition in [...]

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Ever since she finished university Kate Sedgwick has been on the lookout for her first home.So when the 26-year-old event coordinator from Canberra found the perfect place last year, she didn’t hesitate for a second just because she didn’t have a man in her life to share the home and financial burden with.“I must admit, [...]

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  Online searches for property in Australia have more than doubled over the last two months as increasing numbers of Brits head to the web to search for property in warmer climates. According to research from a leading overseas property website, searches for Property In Australia increased by a staggering 114 per cent whilst searches [...]

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WHEN Lloyd Borrett set up a website in the mid-1990s for a local computer company, he had to move overseas to find a suitable domain name – well before it was fashionable to do so.The restrictions on Australian domain names meant that he could not reserve expert.com.au for Expert, an IT business later acquired by [...]

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CoreLogic, a data aggregator, said Tuesday that it has struck an agreement to buy an Australian company called RP Data Ltd.CoreLogic collects data on such varied topics as mortgage applications, criminal cases, payday lending and tax records and sells that data and its services to businesses and the government. The company valued its deal for [...]

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Looks like 2011 could turn out to be the Year of the Big Deal.  In the latest fast-moving drama, at least six major firms have submitted bids to buy 600 U.S. shopping centers and 112 international malls from Melbourne, Australia-based Centro Properties Group, according to The Wall Street Journal.Centro has a debt load of $18.4 [...]

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