Rental conditions begin to ease following ‘incredibly challenging' period
REA Group Senior Economist Eleanor Creagh claims rental conditions are beginning to ease from the 'incredibly challenging conditions' over the past few years.
'Certainly, we are seeing a bit of relief for renters,' she told Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood.
'We have also seen that investor activity has picked up over the past couple of years, and actually rental investor activity is sitting close to a decade high.'
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News.com.au
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- News.com.au
No ‘silver bullet' for age verification in Labor's social media ban, project chief says
The brains tasked with finding a way to enforce Labor's world-leading social media ban for under 16s say it is possible but that there is no 'silver bullet'. The preliminary findings of the Age Assurance Technology Trial (AATT) were released on Friday just six months before the ban was set to come into force. Project chief Tony Allen said his team found 'there isn't a one solution fits all' but rather a range of options that parties could use. 'There isn't like a silver bullet that will solve everything,' Mr Allen told Sky News. 'And different providers of social media services, for instance, will need to explore exactly what will work for them and their users, and that's really for them to assess their risk and to consider what they might want to implement.' In terms of what it might look like in practice, he suggested 'successive validated' – a series of tests designed to firm up a user's age. Mr Allen said it could start with 'something which is fairly simple, like holding your hand up or showing your face or talking'. 'And then that might not give you sufficient level of confidence, so then move on to maybe age inference techniques, or ultimately, they may need to move on to age verification where you need some sort of record or document,' he said. The trial uncovered some challenges. It found parental control and consent systems could be effective when first rolled out but could not 'cope with the evolving capacity of children' or properly protect a 'child's digital footprint'. It also warned that 'service providers were over-anticipating the eventual needs of regulators' and over-collecting user data. This consequently 'increased risk of privacy breaches', according to the findings. But Mr Allen said the 'clear conclusion' was that enforcing age limits could be enforced safely. He held back on putting a figure on the efficacy, noting the measurers were not 'foolproof'. 'There are ways that they (children) can get around them,' Mr Allen said. 'But then we've had tobacco laws for 100 years to stop children accessing tobacco, and it doesn't stop them from accessing some children from tobacco. 'So you have to try and work on how you reduce the risk and reduce the instance. 'You'll never completely eliminate it.'
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Deserted private island with abandoned resort up for sale
A deserted Queensland island with a derelict resort abandoned by its Chinese investor owner is officially up for grabs after years of mystery over its future. The 28-hectare South Molle Island is the second derelict resort island in the Whitsundays to hit the market in the past few months, after the Queensland government seized Double Island for re-sale off Hong Kong billionaire Benny Wu in June last year. The Queensland Government has threatened to strip more owners of abandoned island tourism properties of their leases though it is not known if South Molle Island was subject to that. All the tax write offs Aussies can claim The abandoned resort was bought by China Capital Investment Group in 2016, which also owned Daydream Island and Spa, but the following year sustained heavy damage during Cyclone Debbie. It has been in a derelict state but because part of the island is national park, a new jetty was built to allow visitors to access the walking trails. China Capital has previously listed South Molle Island for sale in 2023, but the property is time listed with HTL Property's Andrew Jackson, Andrew Jolliffe and Paul Nyholt who officially launched the expressions of interest campaign Friday. Agents expect strong interest given the Whitsundays popularity with both Australian and offshore richlist families, with the ideal candidate being a new investor, hotelier or developer willing to take on the rebuild. 'The island has previously been home to the Adventure Island Whitsundays resort, which comprised 188 rooms and premium facilities ranging from multiple resort pools to a golf course,' said HTL Property's managing director, Andrew Jolliffe. Govt pays $3.3m for unliveable derelict house The island is ripe for rejuvenation for a bold buyer, with Mr Jolliffe expecting to see strong interest given several islands in the Whitsundays have successfully been scooped up for redevelopment since the pandemic including Long Island, Lizard Island, Dunk Island and Hook Island. Mr Jackson, who is HTL Property's national accommodation director, said 'new resort developments in the Whitsundays, such as Hook Island's upcoming eco-resort and the ultra exclusive Elysian Retreat on Long Island, highlight the surging market interest in new accommodation in the region'. 'Recently opened and upcoming accommodation in the area ranges in scale between higher density resort complexes with 150-plus rooms to private, boutique experiences with as little as 10 rooms, illustrating the fact that there's no limit to what you can do with the advantageous positioning and peerless appeal of the Whitsundays.' Shock as city's distressed home listings surge 36pc in one month The island is being marketed as a 'one-of-a-kind development opportunity' given its stunning Whitsundays location which sees millions of visitors a year given its proximity to the world heritage listed Great Barrier Reef. Among those are yachties including New Zealanders Anna and Angus Willison who in January last year flagged major concern over looting and destruction of abandoned sites in a column for Yachting Monthly. 'Every island that we visited in the Whitsundays had the skeletons and rubble of once very busy and well-loved resorts. I was saddened to see decaying buildings left to be looted and destroyed by visitors – a pile of garbage and a blot on an otherwise pristine beach,' the couple said, flagging South Molle as one they dropped anchor at. HTL Property director Paul Nyholt believes that strong tourism trend is set to continue. 'South Molle Island offers tremendous growth and unlimited upside potential for a buyer with the vision to further develop the property's natural beauty,' he said. The firm said the property's prime location and unparalleled natural beauty 'make it an attractive prospect for those looking to enter the Australian resort market or expand an existing portfolio with complete control over the scope of the site'. No date has been set for the closure of the international expression of interest campaign.
The Australian
an hour ago
- The Australian
Smaller banks offering lowest home loan interest rates after RBA rate cuts: canstar
Making one simple change could save tens of thousands of dollars, and that's even before making extra repayments or throwing money into an offset account. The average owner-occupier variable home loan rate is now at 5.8 per cent, comparison group Canstar estimates. So if you're on that rate or above, and especially if you're in the early years of a 30-year mortgage, it might be time to shop around for a better deal. To give you an idea of what you could be paying, the lowest variable offering currently in the market is 5.34 per cent. For first home buyers it's even lower at 5.24 per cent. Who's offering the best rates? Smaller banks and non-bank lenders are offering the most competitive rates. Non-bank lender Pacific Mortgage Group is leading the pack with its 5.34 per cent variable loan but there are plenty of others sitting just slightly higher, per the table below. Again, keep in mind that Horizon's offering is only for first-home buyers. All up, eight lenders are currently offering rates of 5.39 per cent, including People's Choice, RACQ Bank and Australian Mutual, while a handful more have rates as low as 5.44 per cent. All up, 34 lenders now offer at least one variable rate under 5.5 per cent, according to Sally Tindall, head of research at Canstar. 'If your rate's above 5.8 per cent, alarm bells should be ringing. That's just the average, it's not even competitive,' she says. If you're keen to stick with the big four banks, CBA, Westpac and ANZ are currently offering variable rates of 5.59 per cent, while NAB is the outlier at 5.94 per cent. These are the advertised rates but there's often wriggle room for the bank to do a better deal if, for example, your loan-to-value ratio is particularly low. For those looking at fixed rates, there's a handful offering just under 5 per cent. But the cash rate is widely expected to fall further in the near term, meaning variable rates will continue to drop. Refinancing options Do-it-yourself refinancing, that's dealing with the bank yourself rather than through a broker, can be a bit of a pain and time consuming but it can also pay off. Your broker isn't always going to tell you the absolute lowest rates on the market, only the ones they can get for you. But if you've got a broker who can get you a competitive rate, it means they do all the legwork and you don't have to spend hours calling up each lender to get the best deal. Keep in mind, broker or not, switching lenders comes with fresh credit checks and invasive financial questions, as well as refinance fees that can range from $500 to $2000. There's also the risk that you refinance and the Reserve Bank cuts rates but your new lender doesn't pass the cuts on. We may not see this in the current cycle, especially since Treasurer Jim Chalmers was straight onto the banks in February ordering them to pass the RBA cut on, but it's a risk to be aware of. If you can't get a lender to give you a rate near the lowest in the market (5.34 per cent), getting it down from say, 6 to 5.5 per cent, will still mean a big saving. But there are traps to watch for, including the impact of stretching out your loan term back to 30 years. Crunching the numbers for The Australian, Canstar has come up with a couple of scenarios that illustrate the point. A borrower with a $600,000 home loan and 25 years left on their mortgage who refinances to 5.5 per cent and keeps their current loan term will potentially save almost $52,000 in interest. But if that same borrower extended the loan term back out from 25 to 30 years, their monthly repayments would drop by $459 but over the life of the loan they'd actually end up paying $55,000 more than if they'd done nothing at all. Canstar's scenario assumes there's two more RBA rate cuts (which we expect this year), bringing the cash rate to a neutral 3.35 per cent. It also assumes the banks pass on these cuts. No frills, digital only Other offerings in the market to look at are the no-frills, digital-only products like CBA's digi home loan and digital bank Up, which is backed by Bendigo Bank. CBA's digi home loan rate for owner-occupiers is at 5.59 per cent while its offering for investors is a competitive 5.69 per cent. Unloan, another digital-only offering backed by CBA is even lower, at 5.49 per cent. Like other lenders, CBA has seen a pick-up in customers looking to refinance since the RBA kicked off its rate-cutting cycle in February, according to its executive general manager for home buying, Dr Michael Baumann. 'It's a good trigger for customers to look at the interest rate they're paying and figure out whether they're on a good deal,' Baunmann says. The bank has seen a doubling of applications on the digital home loan product in the past year. And in a sign of an increasingly competitive market, CBA recently slashed its rates more than the RBA's 0.25 per cent May rate cut. 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