The MFAA has slammed a report claiming brokers advise clients to lie on their loan applications... Regional WA puts up a fight over December quarter...
MFAA speaks out against AFR's 'inflammatory article' on brokers
The Australian Financial Review recently published an article ‘Uncovering the big Aussie short’ which includes report findings from Jonathan Tepper, an economist and founder of Variant Perception.
Three weeks ago, Tepper and John Hempton, Bronte Capital's chief investment officer posed as a couple looking to buy a house, meeting 20 mortgage brokers across north-west and south-west Sydney suburbs, to find out if there’s a housing bubble.
“What they discovered repeatedly was that mortgage brokers were advising them to lie on loan application documents about the deposit for a house and about income,” the AFR reported.
"We asked if the bank would call our employer, and both reputable and disreputable brokers said banks rarely verified payslips,” Tepper wrote in a report.
The MFAA released a statement today saying they consider Tepper’s reports of mortgage brokers to be a serious allegation.
MFAA CEO Siobhan Hayden says, “The practices of brokers are well documented and require the provision of supporting upfront documents such as payslips, group certificates, tax returns and identification check as part of the upfront application. Lying has no place in this industry and we take swift action if members are acting unethically. It should also be noted that brokers who act outside of the law represent an incredibly small portion of the industry.”
“We call on the AFR or the research firm provides the names of these mortgage brokers, as the MFAA has a strict code of practice and ethics attached to its membership. If these are MFAA members we would initiate a full investigation and work in partnership with the industry regulator (ASIC).”
Regional WA puts up a fight over December quarter
It’s an area that has seen little in the way of good news in recent times, but the December 2015 quarter was one of resiliency for the majority of rental markets in regional Western Australia.
According to figures from the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIWA), only two rental markets in the state’s regional areas saw a decline in median weekly asking rents over the quarter, with the median weekly rent across all regional WA increasing by $20 to $380.
“All but two regional centres increased or remained stable in their median rent price over the quarter. Albany urban area was a top performer in the December quarter with its median lifting $10 a week, followed by Esperance urban area which lifted $7 over the quarter,” REIWA president Hayden Groves said.
“Port Hedland had the biggest decline in price, with its median rent coming in at $485 per week, while Karratha urban area was something of an anomaly in the regional market due to a small sample of new rentals skewing the data,” Groves said.
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The Australian Financial Review recently published an article ‘Uncovering the big Aussie short’ which includes report findings from Jonathan Tepper, an economist and founder of Variant Perception.
Three weeks ago, Tepper and John Hempton, Bronte Capital's chief investment officer posed as a couple looking to buy a house, meeting 20 mortgage brokers across north-west and south-west Sydney suburbs, to find out if there’s a housing bubble.
“What they discovered repeatedly was that mortgage brokers were advising them to lie on loan application documents about the deposit for a house and about income,” the AFR reported.
"We asked if the bank would call our employer, and both reputable and disreputable brokers said banks rarely verified payslips,” Tepper wrote in a report.
The MFAA released a statement today saying they consider Tepper’s reports of mortgage brokers to be a serious allegation.
MFAA CEO Siobhan Hayden says, “The practices of brokers are well documented and require the provision of supporting upfront documents such as payslips, group certificates, tax returns and identification check as part of the upfront application. Lying has no place in this industry and we take swift action if members are acting unethically. It should also be noted that brokers who act outside of the law represent an incredibly small portion of the industry.”
“We call on the AFR or the research firm provides the names of these mortgage brokers, as the MFAA has a strict code of practice and ethics attached to its membership. If these are MFAA members we would initiate a full investigation and work in partnership with the industry regulator (ASIC).”
Regional WA puts up a fight over December quarter
It’s an area that has seen little in the way of good news in recent times, but the December 2015 quarter was one of resiliency for the majority of rental markets in regional Western Australia.
According to figures from the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIWA), only two rental markets in the state’s regional areas saw a decline in median weekly asking rents over the quarter, with the median weekly rent across all regional WA increasing by $20 to $380.
“All but two regional centres increased or remained stable in their median rent price over the quarter. Albany urban area was a top performer in the December quarter with its median lifting $10 a week, followed by Esperance urban area which lifted $7 over the quarter,” REIWA president Hayden Groves said.
“Port Hedland had the biggest decline in price, with its median rent coming in at $485 per week, while Karratha urban area was something of an anomaly in the regional market due to a small sample of new rentals skewing the data,” Groves said.
You may have missed:
Building long-term relationships in commercial broking
Why half of Australians don't want to talk about money
