Entries by Simon Wood

A Successful & Complex Refinance

Background First Point Group takes pride in being able to offer our clients solutions for all their finance needs, no matter how simple or complex. We love a good challenge and this article shows how we overcame exactly that for one of our many valued customers! Recently, First Point Group was faced with a complex […]

Interest Rate Update – August 2016

Cash Rate – Reduced to 1.5% The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has just announced it will reduce the official cash rate to 1.5%. In a finely balanced decision the RBA would have been particularly influenced by the results of the June quarter inflation rising only 0.4% and hence only 1.0% over the twelve months […]

Interest Rate Update – July 2016

Cash Rate – No Change The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has just announced it will maintain the official cash rate at 1.75%. Notwithstanding the uncertainty surrounding both the Australian election outcome and the aftermath of Brexit the RBA has a preference to await the results of the June quarter inflation figures (due later this […]

Interest Rate Update – June 2016

Cash Rate – No Change The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has just announced it will maintain the official cash rate at 1.75%. This follows last week’s better than expected GDP figures which showed annualised economic growth at 3.1 per cent. It is interesting to note that business lending has been growing at a slightly […]

Interest Rate Update – May 2016

Cash Rate – Reduced to 0.25% The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has just announced it will reduce the official cash rate to 1.75%. The weakness of the March quarter’s inflation figure (-0.2%) shocked many Economists. This was the first time the headline inflation rate has fallen since December 2008 and the resultant annual inflation […]

Interest Rate Update – April 2016

Cash Rate – No Change The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has just announced it will maintain the official cash rate at 2.00%. Notwithstanding a strong Australian dollar the RBA remains comfortable with a contained inflation rate and a slowly improving labour market. Business credit has expanded (0.7% for the month of February) resulting in an […]

Interest Rate Update – March 2015

Cash Rate – No change The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has announced it will maintain the official cash rate at 2.25%. Following last month’s RBA decision to reduce the cash rate by 0.25% for the first time since August 2013, the RBA decided to defer any action so as to better understand the effects […]

Interest Rate Update – March 2016

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has just announced it will maintain the official cash rate at 2.00%. It may be Super Tuesday in the United States but it is also a huge week for local financial data, including the GDP figures for our last quarter. The Bank will prefer to assess this information to see […]

Case Study: Selling a property with a fixed rate loan

First Point Group always work to find the best possible outcome for our clients. In this case study, Kate had a $300,000 fixed rate home loan, and a $400,000 variable home loan ($700,000 total). Kate sold her home, but had not yet found a new property to buy. She was happy to rent for a […]

Changes to Interest Rates

We recently wrote regarding significant changes in the Australian residential investment loan market over the past couple of months. This intervention by APRA (Financial System Regulator) sparked the beginning of a process for Australian Lenders to not only reduce the volume of investment lending, but just as importantly, to bolster the amount of capital Lenders […]