https://propertyplanning.com.au/propertyplannerbuyerprofessor/ In this week's Ep#79 of the Property Planner, Buyer and Professor Podcast, Dave, Cate and Pete take you through: Market insights 1. Month on month growth reaches peak Some say that the housing market is beginning to show some signs of slowing. Agents who have been so inundated with activity are starting to return to their usual practices of performing pre-auction calls to firm up bidders. This signals that some of the heat in the market might be subsiding. The trio believe that we'll still continue to see positive growth, but not at the same rate of knots experienced over the last few months. The Property Buyer suggests that the velocity is decreasing despite the pace remaining positive. 2. Positive market indicators The latest unemployment figures released by the ABS for the month of March show unemployment lowering from 5.8% to 5.6%, which is great news. Iron Ore spot prices per tonne cracked $190, which is the highest price since 2011 and 1% off record highs in the mining boom years. This bodes well for the Government's coffers and our federal budget returning to surplus over the coming years. 3. Loan deferrals back on track In more positive news, only 0.5% of the million loans deferred due to Covid are still frozen. Many people who were hanging their hat on waiting for properties to flood the market because of forced sales have missed out on opportunities. Like we always say, there is no time like the present to purchase property, provided that you are making decisions based on your own personal economy. Timing the market is incredibly difficult, even for the property experts. 4. Houses outperform units Latest figures from CoreLogic reveal that for all capital cities (bar Melbourne), houses have performed units over the last year. That has been the case for many decades, but accentuated further through Covid where people were looking for bigger dwellings. We expect rental yield and capital growth for units to slow down even further. Cross collateralisation 1. What is cross collateralisation? Also known as cross securitisation, put simply, cross collateralisation is where you have a single loan secured by two or more properties. The Property Planner and Buyer unpack the myths that surround this loan structure strategy. 2. Why do people think cross collateralisation should be avoided? The main reason why people are averse to cross collateralisation, is the belief that by having a single property providing security for a loan, you are protecting your other assets from the bank in the event of loan default and forced mortgagee (lender) sale. If the value of property is not enough to extinguish the debt on the loan, the lender may look to your other assets to cover the shortfall. While retaining individual loans for each security property may limit a lender's ability to access your other assets, it is certainly not impossible and there are other legal means that lenders can use to access your other properties to recoup their losses. 3. Beware of spruikers! A large proponent of not crossing securities are property spruikers who are selling properties under the guise of 'free property advice'. This is because their aim is to convince people to buy multiple properties, with high loan to value ratios which are often poorer quality assets, with low prospects of capital growth. Brand new properties can often decline in value, so the spruiker is actually protecting themselves by advising against cross-collateralisation, and promoting assets are financed across multiple...