Lending at 5-year low; Petrol at 30-month high

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Lending finance Lending slumped in February. Total lending finance fell by 5.7 per cent in February after sliding by 6.1 per cent in January. Lending totalled $49.3 billion in February –

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Home loans fall to near decade lows

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Housing finance Loans for the purchase of newly erected dwelling slumped by 12 per cent in February. Over the past three months loans are down almost 36 per cent – marking

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Building approvals slump; QLD retailers benefit from rebuilding

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Building Approvals; Retail trade; Private Sector Credit Council approvals to build news homes fell by 7.4 per cent in February after sliding by a revised 11.6 per cent in the

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Investor Signposts: Week Beginning March 27 2011

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The big picture There is an old adage in economics – there are lies, damned lies and statistics. And when it comes to the issue of housing valuations and affordability,

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Investor Signposts: Week Beginning April 3 2011

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The big picture The Reserve Bank Board meets again on Tuesday to decide interest rate settings. But this month – as was the case last month – there is no

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House prices slide to near 2-year lows

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House Prices Capital city home prices were unchanged in seasonally adjusted terms in February after a 1.5 per cent slide in the prior month according to the RP Data-Rismark Hedonic

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Record migration slump dampens population growth

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Population Australia’s population grew by 345,500 people over the year to September. Population growth increased by 1.57 per cent over the past year – the weakest growth rate in four

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Homebuyer confidence dips under weight of natural disasters and rising costs of living

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Leading lenders mortgage insurer Genworth Financial (Genworth) has today released the March 2011 Genworth Homebuyer Confidence Index (HCI) – a biannual measure of borrower and would-be borrower sentiment. The index

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Aussie equities underperform global peers

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Sharemarket Insights The Australian sharemarket has significantly underperformed other major overseas markets this financial year. Some of the factors that have led to this under-performance include higher domestic interest rates,

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$US breaking down, $A breaking higher

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Key points The $A is continuing to push further above parity against the $US, reaching a 29 year high. This reflects a combination of strong commodity prices, $US weakness and

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