Case Study: Alex

We had a chat with Alex, based in Brisbane, and asked him about his experiences, challenges and how he overcame them.

The week after we moved into our second home, the Reserve Bank started raising interest rates. Even though we had a big deposit from the sale of an earlier home which had doubled in price, after 12 hikes the rising repayments on the new home became too much. We were stressing, living week to week to try and pay the mortgage and the bills. It seemed like we were always playing catch up. We made the choice to downsize to a townhouse with a smaller mortgage and more manageable repayments. It was a compromise but at the end of the day, having a bit more financial freedom was what we wanted so it was a compromise we were willing to make. Our existing loan was with loans.com.au, and they had a very competitive interest rate, so we spoke to them and arranged finance for our new, more affordable home.

• Dealing with an unprecedent series of official interest rate hikes that sharply increased loan repayments
• Finding a house that was less expensive that was still suitable for our needs

“I would certainly recommend getting a home loan from loans.com.au.”

• We responded quickly to the rising rates by switching to a smaller home and dramatically reducing our mortgage
• We networked through a lot of real estate agents and, eventually, the agent we used to sell our home found us a suitable townhouse off market in the right area. He knew what we were looking for and he had something come up at the right time. I strongly suggest keeping in touch with real estate agents directly when you are looking and don’t just rely on website listings.