Canstar’s most satisfied customer award for bread has caused a stir around the office. (Spoiler alert: Coles Bakery took the top gong for white bread, while Aldi nabbed the award for multigrain). But the kerfuffle came on the back of our colleague Kia announcing she TOASTS slices of bread before freezing them. What?! The internet will claim it lowers the GI in the bread but Kia does it to make crunchy Dutch toast, which I’ve been buying pre-made at probably double the price. Not anymore.
First home buyers have gone off like a rocket, with the latest ABS data showing over 30,000 new buyers piled into the market in the space of three months. It comes as the average new loan size also took off into space, hitting a new record high of $736k (it didn’t just hit it, it smashed it, rising by $457 a day).
This could be seen as an unfortunate coincidence but the two are inextricably linked, because just before the surge two things happened: 1) the RBA cut the cash rate three times, which meant people could borrow more from the bank and 2) the government took the lid off the Home Guarantee scheme, giving every first home buyer the chance to borrow with just 5 per cent deposit.
Tens of thousands of buyers now have a home they can call their own as a result of the scheme, which is fantastic, but what about the millions behind them who now have to pay more? Is this policy working as intended or is it a band-aid on a bullet wound?
