For many investors, COVID-19 has been a tough period.
Rent reductions and declining rents have made a dent in the cashflows of many investors and their households.
Those with rental properties in inner city areas in Sydney and Melbourne are likely to find themselves more affected, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).
The proportion of empty rental homes is rising in some of these inner city pockets, with the vacancy rate in Sydney CBD climbing from 4.6 per cent in February pre-COVID to 12.9 per cent in August, data from SQM Research showed.
In the Melbourne CBD, the vacancy rate hiked from 4.6 per cent in February to 10 per cent in August.
But rental properties are becoming a hot commodity in many regional areas, as many seek to escape the densely populated areas of the city. The vacancy rate in NSW ‘s The Entrance declined from 1.9 per cent in February to 0.9 per cent in August.
For investors considering refinancing, the lowest investor mortgage rate recorded by RateCity hit 2.18 per cent this month. The new mortgage rate, coming from Homestar Finance, is fixed for one year.
For investors who are also paying off a home that they’re living in, Loans.com.au has a 1.99 per cent investor rate if they roll their owner-occupied home loan and investment mortgage together.
If you’re an investor thinking of taking advantage of record-low interest rates, RateCity has put together a list of the top-rated mortgages for investors in September 2020, based on their Real Time Ratings™. For more information, check out the RateCity Leaderboards.
(Rankings are correct at the time of publishing. Please note lenders may trade places on the list as interest rates and fees change and RateCity’s tracker reflects these movements.)
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