Low interest rates fuel refinancing boom
Article Category: Interest Rates
By www.yourmortgage.com.au, 13 August 2009
A record number of Australian consumers are refinancing their home loans to take advantage of the current low interest rates, a new data showed.
Housing finance figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed borrowers refinanced a total of $1.5 billion in June - a whopping 94.7% jump from a year ago.
Mortgages taken to buy a block of land climbed by 48.4% while loans to build new homes fell by 6.9% dragged down by lower investment loans.
"Aussie consumers are refinancing at a record rate and in the process, unleashing fresh spending power," said Craig James, chief economist with CommSec.
"The reduction in work hours in the community is clearly not a restraint on consumer spending. Consumers have been actively unlocking spending power by refinancing loans at super-low rates.
The benefits of the cheaper debt are long-lasting, erasing fears of a slowdown in consumer spending later in the year.