Mortgage refinancing likely peaked last year at 24.2 per cent of all transactions and was unlikely to increase further as sales pick up in aTotal property transactions, which fell to 2.06 million in the six months to June for a third straight decline, had also likely reached a trough, PEXA chief executive Glenn King said after the platform that commands an 88 per cent share of the property transaction marketAuctioneer Michael Garofolo passed the Ryde property in on a vendor bid of $2.5 million.
Much of the refinancing has been driven by homeowners having to renegotiate fixed rate loans set during the time of record-low borrowing rates in the pandemic.Fears the so-called “mortgage cliff” would cause widespread financial pain as people changed to much higher borrowing rates have not yet materialised.
But it’s also a sign of a strengthening housing market. PEXA transaction figures show sales settlements rose from 48,000 in April to 58,000 in May and 66,000 in June after a weak first half, for a total of more than 665,000 property settlements for the year to June. There are other signs that vendors and buyers are growing more confident after the shock of 12 interest rate increases that added 400 basis points to the benchmark lending rate within 14 months.in the week to Saturday. Melbourne had its busiest week since Easter and Sydney had its busiest week since April, data provider CoreLogic said.