News

Bouris head on block, Greens fed up, Mortgage Choice calm under pressure
By Tim Neary
November 15, 2010

Industry heavyweight Mark Bouris has put his head on a block and said it's time for consumers to do the same - to vote with their feet and switch their mortgages away from the majors, as all four majors eventually lay their cards on the table.
 
At what stage is enough, enough?" he is reported as having said on broker news site The Advisor.

"In the last two weeks, we've seen millions of dollars taken out of the hands of every day home loan customers and transferred to the already $20 billion plus bank profits that already exists," he said.

On Friday, both Bouris's Yellow Brick Road and LJ Hooker Home Loans confirmed they would not be raising rates until at least February - regardless of what the others do.

Yellow Brick Road has also announced plans to remove exit fees from its standard variable home loan products as of 1 December 2010.

Meanwhile, the majors' could face a 24-month freeze from out-of-cycle rates raising if the Green party has anything to do with it.

In an e-mailed statement released yesterday, Brokernews reported today that the party announced it would be introducing the ban in the lower house - along with rules that banks pass along decreases to the official central bank rates and scrap some small fees.

Borrower beware

And, in and amongst all the confusion Mortgage Choice feels many mortgage holders must be feeling uncertainty as to what their next move should be.

Senior corporate affairs manager, Kristy Sheppard, said the interest rate waiting game is a difficult one, especially for those who aren't familiar with the home loan marketplace.

"Borrowers are hearing conflicting messages from everywhere," she said.

To that end the mortgage broker has published a range of interest rate "fast facts" to help educate home loan borrowers.
 

 

 

 
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