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Lawyers to benefit in new lending landscape
A lawyer-turned-director and buyer’s agent has shed some light on how today’s lending landscape presents an opportune time for Aussie legal practitioners.
Emma Musgrave
According to Nick Viner, former lawyer and now founder of buyers’ agency Buyers Domain, legal professionals are among those set to benefit from what’s being described as a new lending landscape, which is being brought on by softening prices across Sydney’s real estate market.
In their piece, the pair noted recent comments by the Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe seemed to be a warning to all major financiers changing their credit processes, with the RBA head noting that “banks are becoming too cautious”.
“Although this may be true for many Australians in current climate finding it both vexing and difficult to get their loan approved, there is one mortgage company that attests their clientele have never found it more opportune to secure lending,” Mr Viner and Mr Haynes wrote in their piece. Commenting further, Mr Haynes said that lawyers can leverage their unique risk profile among lenders.
“The financial savings, favourable credit criteria and bespoke options that most lawyers are eligible for were and still are widely unknown,” he said.
“This is most important for lawyers as house prices in Australia are 44.8 per cent higher over the past decade and 209.9 per cent over the past 20 years, with CoreLogic data suggesting that prices now have reverted to where they were at the start of 2017.”
Mr Haynes noted that despite the “media rhetoric of a failing property economy and the holiday time being a historically quieter one for purchases...We’ve actually noticed a significant increase in volume for December and January”.
“Our legal clients are actively leveraging their elite risk profile and buying up opportunities that the general population are too shying away from,” he said.
In terms of finance to the general public, Mr Haynes continued, “four years ago those borrowers qualified for a $1,000,000 investment property loan are now struggling to qualify for half that amount, despite having full time jobs, clean credit history and security backing”.
“The legal profession though, is one that is looked upon favourably by certain lenders and thus borrowing capacity in many instances remains higher than the national average,” he said.
Furthermore, Mr Haynes clarified that the LMI waiver can be to 90 per cent. Lawyers, Mr Haynes advised, “... because of their standing, are able to access products that give them the edge in this market”.
“Many legal professionals are simply unaware (as it’s not very well advertised) that, because of their elite standing, [they] can in fact borrow up to 90 per cent with certain lenders on our panel.”
Emma Musgrave
Emma Musgrave (née Ryan) is the managing editor, professional services at Momentum Media.
Emma has worked for Momentum Media since 2015, including five years spent as the editor of the company's legal brand - Lawyers Weekly. Throughout her time at Momentum, she has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest stories in corporate Australia. In addition, she has produced exclusive multimedia and event content related to the company's respective brands and audiences.
Prior to joining Momentum Media, Emma worked in breakfast radio, delivering news to the Central West region of NSW, before taking on a radio journalist role at Southern Cross Austereo, based in Townsville, North Queensland.
She holds a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) degree from Charles Sturt University.
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