Login
ISCOVER
57 per cent of Australians now rate owning a home or paying off their home sooner as their top priority, according to The Westpac Home Ownership report.
General manager of Westpac mortgage broker distribution Tony MacRae said it is striking that people are prioritising home ownership ahead of having children and getting married, which rated at 8 per cent and 5 per cent respectively.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Mr MacRae also said the research indicated many Australians do not fully understand the complex finance sector and need more advice to help them own their own home sooner.
“Our research indicates that many features designed to help pay off loans quicker are not fully understood, meaning Australians are missing out on opportunities to pay off their home loan faster,” said Mr MacRae.
“One in five of those intending to buy in the next 12 months had no idea what type of loan structure they should take up when they go to buy and of those who already had a home loan, over one in five didn’t even understand what a variable rate was,” he added
Mr MacRae said Westpac were working to bridge the knowledge gap by providing assistance to brokers to help their clients better understand the mortgage buying journey.
“At Westpac we offer a range of useful home loan tools - we are the only major bank with an iPad app made specifically for brokers. Our Broker Hub Toolkit’s designed features are perfect for mortgage brokers to take their clients through the home loan journey and help them get ahead in making one of the important decisions in their lives which is to buy a home and achieve their dreams of home ownership,” said Mr MacRae.
To coincide with the results in the report and Westpac’s recent decision to cut their variable rate by 3 basis points above the RBA’s quarter per cent reduction, the bank has launched a new ‘Home Owns’ advertising campaign encouraging home owners to repay their loans faster with Westpac.
