Refinancing or Getting a New Home loan During COVID-19

Posted By Craig Wieckhorst

The biggest question I get is – "Why Get a Home loan During COVID-19?"

My Biggest answer is "Why Not? "

At this stage, even though we're in a pandemic there are a lot of government incentives for first home buyers, from the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme to the Stamp duty waiver on New Homes. This alone is already a savings of $30k Plus!

There are more stock on the market, this means there are more properties to choose from and potentially negotiate.

Refinancing has never been better; Due to Covid-19 Our Rates have been in an all time low! You might say “the effort to refinance is too much”, One way to look at it is that your efforts for the one to two hours you gather all the documents required and speak to your Broker, you’ll be rewarded by having more cashflow. With the current fixed rate around the 2.Something, that 1% difference that you were paying on the $500,000 is a $5000 savings in a year. You might think it’s not much but that’s Approximately $416, per month, which effectively pays for your Mobile, Internet and even water rates.

The government are estimating the unemployment rate to rise, so Lenders are getting A LOT tighter with the way they assess applications. If your employment status has changed, E.g Jobkeeper, less hours etc. There are still some lenders who will accept this situation, just be sure you speak to your Broker as it’s very important to have more than one option.

At the end of the day, the sole decision to get or refinance a loan is up to you. The points above is just to show you the slight upside.😊

-Roshan Amarasingha