Home Loans & Mortgages

KEVIN Rudd’s recent bid to lure first-home buyers into the sluggish property market to buy a reduced price home, has been greeted with caution by young investors.

Banks over the last three years have let leading standards slip, in an effort to compete with non conforming lenders [sub-prime lenders]. This has lead to higher defaults and foreclosures and that is no good for anyone involved. But are the extra credit reporting requirements really necessary?

Most mortgage lenders have obeyed demands that they stop charging excessive fees for closing a mortgage. In January, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) told lenders that they would have to justify raising mortgage “exit” fees. The FSA said if they could not do so by 28 February, then they would have to agree to charge [...]