Category Archives: Reserve Bank of Australia

Rent-tech platforms sidestepping credit card surcharge ban with new fees and paid ‘memberships’

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Tenants encouraged to seek free options after online property platforms respond to Reserve Bank’s credit card payment reform

Online property management platforms are charging renters new fees or pushing them on to paid “memberships” to avoid processing costs associated with card payments in the wake of the ban on surcharges.

Tenants have been encouraged to challenge or bypass additional fees charged by so-called rent-tech platforms, including in Victoria, where fees on rent payments are banned.

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Australian consumer confidence plunges to worst level since 1990s after RBA rate rise

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Key indicator dropped about 20% after the Reserve Bank last month announced the highest interest rates since 2011

Australian households are the most persistently pessimistic they have been since the early-1990s recession, after a fourth rate rise this year.

Confidence among Australian consumers has plunged about 20% since the Reserve Bank of Australia lifted interest rates to the highest levels since 2011, according to the Westpac–Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index.

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RBA expected to hike cash rate to 4.6%, its highest level since 2011

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Outcome of meetings of Reserve Bank on Monday and Tuesday will affect Australian mortgage rates, household budgets and house prices

Australia’s key interest rate is expected to hit its highest level since 2011, drag down house prices and add more than $100 to typical monthly mortgage repayments.

The Reserve Bank board is poised to hike the cash rate from 4.35% to 4.6% on Tuesday, which would be the fourth increase in 2026 and push typical home loan interest rates to 6.5%.

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AI could be a bubble and is not yet making Australia more productive, Michele Bullock says

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RBA governor says AI is ‘great white hope’ but its adoption is so far adding to inflation, rather than economic growth

The Reserve Bank governor said AI could be a bubble and there was no evidence it is making the economy more efficient, as the Albanese government claims the technology will solve Australia’s economic malaise.

Ahead of an expected interest rate rise next week Michele Bullock also said the slump in house prices was deeper than others in Australia’s recent history.

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RBA interest rates: Reserve Bank holds official cash rate at 4.35% as economy slows and unemployment rises

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Reserve Bank of Australia decision on Tuesday comes after three consecutive cash rate hikes this year

The Reserve Bank has warned it is ready to raise interest rates further despite leaving its official interest rate on hold at 4.35%.

The widely expected decision on Tuesday will bring little relief to mortgage holders, already strained by the RBA’s three consecutive rate hikes earlier in 2026.

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Capital city home prices fall across Australia as experts predict slump could last a year and cut values by 10%

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Buyers abandon auctions and Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra median house prices end May lower than they were at the end of 2025

Home prices in Australia’s capital cities have begun to fall, with experts predicting the decline could last at least a year and wipe as much as 10% from values.

The median capital city home price fell in May, the first decline since January 2025, as high interest rates and inflation stretched buyer budgets, Cotality reported on Monday. Auction success hit a new low for the year.

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News live: Bell says royal commission will look at ‘ugly displays of hostility’ towards Jewish Australians as hearings begin

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Meanwhile treasurer says next week’s budget will save more than it spends. Follow today’s news live

Jim Chalmers says next Tuesday’s budget will not extend the 26 cent fuel tax cut beyond June.

But with Australia “hostage” to the wild swings in global oil prices amid the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran, the treasurer said there was “a range of contingencies” prepared to help support households and the economy from any escalating damage as a result of the Middle East conflict.

The budget will be calibrated for the conditions, but it will also still be consistent with our ambitions.

The election began a year of delivery, and the budget will begin a year of more ambitious reform, reform which is made more not less, urgent by global inflation and global economic uncertainty.

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Debit and credit card surcharges to be removed in Australia by October

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers says changes will help with cost of living and ‘Australians hate paying’ the surcharges

Debit and credit card surcharges will be gone by October under Reserve Bank reforms, with big banks likely to foot the bill for the cost-of-living measures.

The new rules, announced on Tuesday, will enable businesses to remove added fees on Mastercard, visa and eftpos card payments.

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Desperate first home buyers are fuelling price ‘up-crash’ at lower end of market, experts say

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Biggest house price increases in February come in smaller capital cities as buyers undeterred by interest rate hikes

Hot competition for cheaper Australian homes has powered a relentless “up-crash” in prices despite rising interest rates, economists warn.

Desperate first home buyers have bid up the price of affordable properties as they face off against investors, who have borrowed big despite government warnings they could lose tax discounts and deductions.

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RBA holds official interest rate at 3.6% while warning of rising house prices and rents

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Reserve Bank’s decision to leave cash rate on hold was widely expected and major banks predict no interest rates cut until 2026

The Reserve Bank has left the official interest rate on hold, as it warned house prices and rents will rise in 2026 after a surprise rebound in inflation.

The RBA’s monetary policy board on Tuesday kept the cash rate at 3.6%, where it has sat since August. Economists and banks overwhelmingly expected no change.

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Australian property investors squeezing out first-time buyers as record borrowing and rate cuts drive purchases

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Pressure on first home buyers heightens as investors target lower-priced homes and more affordable regions

Property investors borrowed a record sum, nearly $130bn, to buy homes over the year to June, supported by interest rate cuts but squeezing out first-time buyers.

Banks made almost 200,000 new loans to landlords over the year, the most since 2022, while the number of new first-home mortgages slipped to 116,000.

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Australia’s borrowers may have to wait weeks for Reserve Bank’s rate cut to reduce their mortgage

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NAB said it would wait 13 days to pass on the 0.25% cut to borrowers, while Westpac announced it would wait 14 days

Mortgage rates will slide after the Reserve Bank announced a third interest rate cut of the year – but borrowers with some major banks may have to wait weeks for relief.

Lenders have lined up to reduce their rates by 0.25%, with 20 banks – including each of the big four – announcing on Tuesday that they will pass on the cuts but only two of them doing so immediately.

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Australian property bounce after Labor wins second term, early data shows

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More buyers enter the market as auction clearance rates rose to 70% in the week following the election, figures show

Australia’s housing market has surged in the immediate aftermath of Labor’s emphatic election victory, preliminary data shows, while analysts say an anticipated string of rate cuts may see the trend continue.

Auction clearance rates rose to 70% in the week following the election, according to preliminary Cotality data, from 60% in the middle of last month. An auction clearance rate of 70% or above typically indicates sellers are in control of the market.

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Adelaide becomes fifth Australian capital where median house value exceeds $1m

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Across Australia, home prices grew at slowest rate in two years and unit prices fell in March, Domain says

Million-dollar houses are now more common than homes costing less than seven figures in five of Australia’s capital cities.

Adelaide’s median house value passed $1m in March, even as unaffordable costs and high interest rates saw home prices grow at their slowest rate in two years and unit prices fall.

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Australia news live: NSW health system ‘catastrophically let down’ toddler’s family, minister admits

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Two-year-old waited in emergency department for three hours before suffering a cardiac arrest and dying. Follow today’s news headlines live

Victoria to offer contactless public transport tickets from next year

Victorians will be able to use their phones, bank cards or smartwatches to pay for public transport travel from “early next year in a staged approach”, according to reports.

Following a successful start of a ticketless bus trial in Wangaratta, the Allan Labor Government will begin switching on tap-and-go technology across Victoria’s public transport network from early next year in a staged approach – meaning some passengers will soon be able to use their bank cards, phones and smart watches to travel on full fare tickets.

The new ticketing system will continue to be underpinned by extensive technical testing and will be carefully rolled out starting with rail from the beginning early next year – allowing full fare passengers more ways to pay for their travel.

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RBA expected to give mortgage holders ‘breathing capacity’ on interest rates

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But business shouldn’t hold its breath for any immediate effect interest rate cuts might have on spending habits – which can take up to nine months

The Reserve Bank is expected to provide “breathing capacity” to households with mortgages by cutting the official cash rate for the first time since the early days of the Covid pandemic.

The market is pricing in a 90% chance of a 25 basis point decrease on Tuesday, according to the ASX’s rate indicator, although several economists have warned they expect the decision to be closer than the odds suggest.

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Inflation data isn’t all sunshine and rainbows for Labor – as Biden and Democrats will attest

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While a pre-election rate cut is widely seen as positive for incumbent governments, it doesn’t necessarily represent a path to victory in itself

The Reserve Bank of Australia is designed to be independent of government, but that does not mean its decisions do not have political consequences.

After Wednesday’s better-than-expected inflation reading, there is now broad consensus among economists that the RBA will cut interest rates next month.

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Australia’s underlying inflation rate falls to 3.2% to bolster case for RBA rate cut next month

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Consumer price index dropped to 2.4% in December quarter, according to ABS figures released on Wednesday

Australia’s underlying inflation rate has fallen to a three-year low of 3.2%, bolstering the case for a rate cut next month that would provide a dopamine hit to the government ahead of a cost-of-living election.

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s preferred inflation gauge, which strips out volatile price swings, fell to an annual 3.2% for the December quarter, down from 3.5%.

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Inflation figures to ‘make or break’ the case for an Australian pre-election February rate cut

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Release of December quarterly CPI may be the most politically consequential set of numbers in recent times

Inflation figures due out on Wednesday could “make or break” the case for a pre-election rate cut next month, according to economists, in one of the most politically consequential set of numbers of recent times.

The market is pricing in an 84% chance of a 25 basis-point rate cut when the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) meets mid-next month, although those odds will rise or fall based on the December quarterly consumer price index.

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Australia’s housing market ‘buckling’ under widening gap between income and home values, report finds

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Housing prices fell by 0.1% in December but dip likely to be ‘shallow and short-lived’, according to CoreLogic

Australia’s housing downturn is being driven by a widening gap between income, borrowing capacity and home values, but the dip is likely to be “shallow and short-lived”, a new report has found.

In December, Australia’s property market eased with home values falling 0.1% after a flat result in November and a gradual slowdown over last year, according to CoreLogic.

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