The Great Australian Housing Bubble
#226
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Re: The Great Australian Housing Bubble
Would this be as a result of prudential regulation from within Australia or external from the buyers of the debt? If those buyers are seeing better risk controls elsewhere why would they buy the Aussie debt?
#231
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Re: The Great Australian Housing Bubble
If my landlord comes to me next week and tell me he's raising my rent 6% I will laugh in his face. Mortgagees unfortunately don't have the same luxury. Unless of course they are prepared to pay about 15% over the odds to fix for five years. Also, does it cost further money to switch from fixed to variable if rates go down again?
I had to laugh at the media saying last week that the South West area of WA was experiencing a property boom, up 15%! I just had a look on REIWA, Dunsbourough has 280 properties for sale, just 1 under offer, Bussleton 364 for sale, just 10 under offer, and it goes on and on, SFA selling. It's mini California down those parts and yet the media still try to flog a dead horse. Dunsborough is where all the mining big earners have holiday homes and yet it seems they can't even give the houses down there away! Still waiting for this boom that is going to shift all the property building up.
Perth currently has a 30% oversupply in listings now, it will be 50% by March next year, perhaps sooner.
#232
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Re: The Great Australian Housing Bubble
And this in a time of low interest rates. Demand should be high and banks should be tightening, not loosening.
But they can't keep doing loosening, because ultimately their shareholders and creditors will call them to account, fearing for their own investments. Demand for new MBS issues may also fall away.
So ultimately they will have to tighten, and if the market isnt already in a downturn, this might provide the telling blow. This is almost exactly what happened in the US.
#233
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Re: The Great Australian Housing Bubble
You talking UK or Aus, Litda?
#235
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Re: The Great Australian Housing Bubble
You can't get a mortgage in Australia unless you pay 20% deposit (80% LTV) or a heap of insurance to the bank. It has been this way for over 2 years. Either way the bank can't lose, you default you lose 20%+ of your house as of now the bank can sell on to get their money back, or you default and the bank's insurance kicks in and pays off the loan. Anyone with a mortgage before then is already sitting on capital gains that make selling the house in case of default a winner for the bank as well.
There is no subprime in Australia get it? Hence why the Aussie banks are the highest rated in the world.
There is no subprime in Australia get it? Hence why the Aussie banks are the highest rated in the world.
#236
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Re: The Great Australian Housing Bubble
You can't get a mortgage in Australia unless you pay 20% deposit (80% LTV) or a heap of insurance to the bank. It has been this way for over 2 years. Either way the bank can't lose, you default you lose 20%+ of your house as of now the bank can sell on to get their money back, or you default and the bank's insurance kicks in and pays off the loan. Anyone with a mortgage before then is already sitting on capital gains that make selling the house in case of default a winner for the bank as well.
There is no subprime in Australia get it? Hence why the Aussie banks are the highest rated in the world.
There is no subprime in Australia get it? Hence why the Aussie banks are the highest rated in the world.
I think also if you check the Aussie MBS market, you will see that most of the new issues are low-doc or non-conforming loans, not US-style NINJA granted, but not prime. For an example, see here
http://news.domain.com.au/domain/rea...0702-zt6t.html
And the point is not so much whether or not new loans are 97% with 17% guaranteed by insurance, but more that in a downturn, some of those loans will go bad, which will have the knock-on effect of pushing the market down (because insurance companies will put up their rates, RMBS will be less attractive, banks will contract LTV etc).
Think about it this way - someone has to lose here if prices start to fall. Someone is going to be left holding the baby.
Here is the LTV article - http://www.news.com.au/money/propert...-1225918973988
Last edited by littda01; Oct 1st 2010 at 6:41 am.
#238
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Re: The Great Australian Housing Bubble
The first home buyers who bought last year with government grants and 50 year low interest rates will be sub prime in a short period of time. With property prices now on the slide, these people will be in negative equity unfortunately and many will struggle with their repayments as rates rise - they were sucked in to keep the ponzi going.
Lets see how Fitch rate our banks, until then the jury is out on Aus banks being the highest rated in the world, plenty of commentators are saying because of their high exposure to housing debt, they are vulnerable.
#239
Re: The Great Australian Housing Bubble
Much more than two years. I bought my first house ten years ago with a 10% deposit, and had to take out mortgage insurance.
#240
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Re: The Great Australian Housing Bubble
You can't get a mortgage in Australia unless you pay 20% deposit (80% LTV) or a heap of insurance to the bank. It has been this way for over 2 years. Either way the bank can't lose, you default you lose 20%+ of your house as of now the bank can sell on to get their money back, or you default and the bank's insurance kicks in and pays off the loan. Anyone with a mortgage before then is already sitting on capital gains that make selling the house in case of default a winner for the bank as well.
There is no subprime in Australia get it? Hence why the Aussie banks are the highest rated in the world.
There is no subprime in Australia get it? Hence why the Aussie banks are the highest rated in the world.
Also there are problems brewing on a couple fronts as this article explains nicely:
Australian mortgage lenders hit by double whammy
Fri, Aug 27, 2010
Reuters
SYDNEY - Australia's small mortgage lenders are fighting simultaneous hits from regulators and a ratings agency that threaten to choke the fragile recovery in the $88 billion securitisation market and hand more business to large banks.
Securitisation is considered vital in providing competition to Australia's four major banks, which raised their share of the home-loan market to 90 percent since the global financial crisis from 75 around percent earlier.
"There has been a double whammy in the past two weeks,"Chris Dalton, chief executive of industry group Australian Securitisation Forum, said on Friday.
Last week, ratings agency Standard and Poor's (S&P) announced drastic changes to residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) ratings. And on Thursday, the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) warned issuers were taking on too much risk by holding the subordinated tranches of RMBS issues.
The double blow is the biggest threat to smaller banks and non-banks in particular as they rely on securitisation to fund their operations, unlike the nation's major banks, Dalton said.
Smaller banks such as Bank of Queensland, Suncorp Metway and Bendigo Adelaide Bank are among those likely to be the most hurt by APRA's warning.
Rising funding costs have weighed on Australian banks'margins and hit their stocks. Shares of Australia's three
regional banks have on average shed 12 percent this year, versus a little over 10 percent drop in the broader index.
Since the global financial meltdown, subordinated RMBS tranches, the riskiest types, have been the hardest to sell and banks typically opted to keep them on their balance sheets.
"Regional banks with significant securitisation programmes are the most likely to be affected as they may need to raise capital to support market expectations of Tier 1 ratios," said Gus Meideros, credit strategist at Deutsche Bank.
Tier 1 is a measure of banks' financial strength and ability to absorb losses. Holding higher Tier 1 ratios makes banks more stable but also increases their costs.
DOUBLE WHAMMY
S&P has on average doubled the level of subordination it now requires for a top rating. Its move came after similar steps in the United States, where the ratings agencies have been slammed for sudden downgrades of triple A rated securities to default.
Non-bank lender FirstMac estimates it would cost an additional 10 basis points per offer to comply with S&P's subordination ratings requirement.
Subordinated notes absorb the first of any losses and must be wiped out before holders of higher rated bonds lose their money.
Australia's mortgage lenders, however, contest the fairness of the shift as the country has yet to see any RMBS default.
"It's quite disappointing that they are taking offshore, particularly U.S., observations and applying them to the Australian market where it appears there is no statistical data to support the assumptions they are making," said James
Austin, chief financial officer of lender FirstMac.
Bank of Queensland and FirstMac are now considering hiring ratings rivals Moody's and Fitch to rate future issues as their criteria are less stringent.
But this will very much depend on whether both rivals stick to their current criteria or whether they will follow the steps of S&P, the dominant ratings agency in Australia.
"We have an obligation to review annually our methodology but since we went through an extensive review in December, it's unlikely further reviews will result in major changes in the immediate future," said Richard Lorenzo, team leader in structured finance at Moody's.
Fitch said it plans to release its revised criteria by year end. "At this stage, most of our focus for the proposed review will be on property prices," said Natasha Vojvodic, senior director in structured finance at Fitch.
Fri, Aug 27, 2010
Reuters
SYDNEY - Australia's small mortgage lenders are fighting simultaneous hits from regulators and a ratings agency that threaten to choke the fragile recovery in the $88 billion securitisation market and hand more business to large banks.
Securitisation is considered vital in providing competition to Australia's four major banks, which raised their share of the home-loan market to 90 percent since the global financial crisis from 75 around percent earlier.
"There has been a double whammy in the past two weeks,"Chris Dalton, chief executive of industry group Australian Securitisation Forum, said on Friday.
Last week, ratings agency Standard and Poor's (S&P) announced drastic changes to residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) ratings. And on Thursday, the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) warned issuers were taking on too much risk by holding the subordinated tranches of RMBS issues.
The double blow is the biggest threat to smaller banks and non-banks in particular as they rely on securitisation to fund their operations, unlike the nation's major banks, Dalton said.
Smaller banks such as Bank of Queensland, Suncorp Metway and Bendigo Adelaide Bank are among those likely to be the most hurt by APRA's warning.
Rising funding costs have weighed on Australian banks'margins and hit their stocks. Shares of Australia's three
regional banks have on average shed 12 percent this year, versus a little over 10 percent drop in the broader index.
Since the global financial meltdown, subordinated RMBS tranches, the riskiest types, have been the hardest to sell and banks typically opted to keep them on their balance sheets.
"Regional banks with significant securitisation programmes are the most likely to be affected as they may need to raise capital to support market expectations of Tier 1 ratios," said Gus Meideros, credit strategist at Deutsche Bank.
Tier 1 is a measure of banks' financial strength and ability to absorb losses. Holding higher Tier 1 ratios makes banks more stable but also increases their costs.
DOUBLE WHAMMY
S&P has on average doubled the level of subordination it now requires for a top rating. Its move came after similar steps in the United States, where the ratings agencies have been slammed for sudden downgrades of triple A rated securities to default.
Non-bank lender FirstMac estimates it would cost an additional 10 basis points per offer to comply with S&P's subordination ratings requirement.
Subordinated notes absorb the first of any losses and must be wiped out before holders of higher rated bonds lose their money.
Australia's mortgage lenders, however, contest the fairness of the shift as the country has yet to see any RMBS default.
"It's quite disappointing that they are taking offshore, particularly U.S., observations and applying them to the Australian market where it appears there is no statistical data to support the assumptions they are making," said James
Austin, chief financial officer of lender FirstMac.
Bank of Queensland and FirstMac are now considering hiring ratings rivals Moody's and Fitch to rate future issues as their criteria are less stringent.
But this will very much depend on whether both rivals stick to their current criteria or whether they will follow the steps of S&P, the dominant ratings agency in Australia.
"We have an obligation to review annually our methodology but since we went through an extensive review in December, it's unlikely further reviews will result in major changes in the immediate future," said Richard Lorenzo, team leader in structured finance at Moody's.
Fitch said it plans to release its revised criteria by year end. "At this stage, most of our focus for the proposed review will be on property prices," said Natasha Vojvodic, senior director in structured finance at Fitch.