Get a Grip, Mate!

ik - Hang on there, mate. Are we supposed to feel sorry for these blokes? Crikey!! Awwwww, they may have to cut back on expensive outings and forego ice cream so that they can pay for their renovations on their four-bedroom home in Quaker's Hill....

From, uhm, tomorrow's Sydney Morning Herald.


By Bellinda Kontominas
May 4, 2006

ADRIAN and Kate Schembri are juggling a mortgage on their four-bedroom Quakers Hill home with expenses from their recent wedding. For them, yesterday's interest rate rise could not have come at a worse time.

Mr Schembri, an IT engineer and his wife, a primary school teacher, estimate the rate rise would add $70 to $80 to their monthly mortgage repayments, which were more than $2500. It will also stall plans for renovating.

Expensive outings with friends would also need to be cut back, the couple said. "It gets a bit expensive when you have big nights every weekend. There's not much you can [cut back on] in terms of food - you've still got to eat - but we may have to forgo luxuries like ice-cream."

The couple said they would consider refinancing their loan if the Reserve Bank announced more than one rate rise over the next few months. "The banks will be wanting business and there will be certain institutions that offer a more competitive loan," Mr Schembri said.

The Housing Industry Association's chief economist, Simon Tennant, said the rate rise would make breaking into the property market more difficult for first-time buyers and slow down an already "finely balanced" building industry.

"We have a build-up of first home buyers waiting to get into the market and affordability starting to increase, but a rate rise will put the brakes on anyone looking at renovating or getting into the market," he said.

Mr Tennant said buyers who stretched themselves financially to break into the market would be most affected.