In this month’s newsletter, you’ll find a nice mix of home loans, interest rates and property market stories:

More listings hitting the market
5 ways to add equity to your home
Home loan deals for essential workers
RBA keeping eagle eye on inflation

More listings hitting the market
When more properties come onto the market, buyers have more choice, which means they face less competition and have more bargaining power. And that's exactly what's happening now.

Across Australia, 249,325 homes were listed for sale in February, according to SQM Research. That represented a 2.3% month-on-month increase and a 4.1% year-on-year increase.

Meanwhile, the number of new listings (those on the market for less than 30 days) reached 76,159 in February, which was 43.6% higher than the month before and 2.0% higher than the year before.

5 ways to add equity to your home
There are a range of measures you can take to manufacture equity in your property, without doing a major renovation. Here are five options:

Modernise your kitchen and bathrooms. These are key areas of your home, so even small updates — like new benchtops or lighting — can make a big difference.
Maximise space and light. Adding mirrors and skylights, while removing non-structural walls, will make your home feel larger and more liveable.
Increase your kerb appeal. Painting the exterior walls, upgrading the garden and installing a modern front door should make your home more desirable in the eyes of valuers and buyers.
Improve your energy efficiency. Installing solar panels, better insulation and energy-efficient appliances will reduce the running cost of your home and therefore make it more valuable.
Make strategic additions. Adding functional features like a home office, an outdoor entertaining area or extra storage space is likely to impress would-be buyers.

Home loan deals for essential workers
Most home loan customers are required to pay lender’s mortgage insurance (LMI) if they stump up less than a 20% deposit – but exceptions apply for certain professions.

Home loan deals for essential workers

Some lenders allow some essential workers – such as police officers, firefighters, nurses and paramedics – to buy a property with less than a 20% deposit without paying LMI.

Other lenders give special deals to workers with large or reliable incomes, such as medical professionals, lawyers, accountants, engineers, IT professionals and pilots.

Being able to take out a low-deposit loan in tandem with an LMI waiver has two benefits. First, you may be able to avoid paying LMI, which often exceeds $10,000. Second, you may be able to buy a property ahead of schedule, which can save you a lot of money in a rising market – for example, during 2024, median house prices rose by $140,000 in Perth and $95,000 in Brisbane, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

LMI rules vary from lender to lender, which is why you should contact me if you’re thinking about buying a property. Once I know your profession and financial position, I can provide you with a shortlist of lenders that want to do business with people matching your profile.

RBA keeping eagle eye on inflation

If you want to know what will happen to interest rates over the course of 2025, pay close attention to inflation.

That's because the decisions the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has made regarding the cash rate over the past three years have been inextricably linked to inflation.

The reason the RBA started increasing the cash rate in 2022, and continued in 2023, was because it felt inflation was getting out of control: raising rates was meant to reduce economic activity and thereby put downward pressure on prices growth.
The reason the RBA kept the cash rate on hold throughout 2024 was because it felt inflation was too low to justify further rate hikes but too high to justify a rate cut.
The reason the RBA reduced the cash rate in February 2025, from 4.35% to 4.10%, was because of “the progress that had been made in reducing inflation,” according to the minutes of the meeting.