Morning Briefing: Lenders accused of 'phantom rate' offerings

The head of a major mortgage broking franchise has a warning for borrowers... Auction market hits slight moderation...

Lenders accused of "phantom rate" offerings
The head of a major mortgage broking franchise has warned borrowers to be on the lookout for home loan deals that seem too good to be true.

John Kolenda, managing director of 1300HomeLoan, believes a number of lenders are currently offering “phantom rates,” which are only designed to bring people through the door.

“Some lenders are aggressively pricing products to lure customers and boost their market share and then when they are signed up they increase their mortgage rates independently of any interest rate decisions by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA),” Kolenda said.

“Home loan customers have every right to be angry about these discounted phantom rates that prove to be nothing more than an illusion,” he said.

Auction market hits slight moderation
Lenders accused of "phantom rate" offerings New app is real estate's own social media platform RBA attitude drives down fixed rate demand
The recent strong run from Australia’s auction market looks to have moderated somewhat, with preliminary figures indicating the national clearance rate looks to have come in below 70% over last week.

According to figures from CoreLogic RP Data, the preliminary national clearance rate currently sits at 68.1% from 2,253 auctions, compared to the previous week’s 71.4% from 2,701 auctions.

If there is upward revision for the preliminary rate, it will be the first time it has dipped below 70% in five weeks.

Over the week Melbourne proved to be the busiest individual market, with it recording a preliminary clearance rate of 70.6% from 1,218 auctions.

Over the previous week, Melbourne’s clearance rate finalised at 74.8%.

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