Fixed Rate Home Loans: Want peace of mind knowing what your loan repayment is going to be tomorrow? With a Fixed Rate Home Loan you have the security of knowing that your repayment will be the same for a fixed period of time. A fixed rate loan allows you to accurately budget each month.

The duration period is around one to five years as the repayments are fixed along with the period of fixed rate time. By the end of the fixed time, you will have an option of changing to the standard variable rate or a mixture of split loans.

Do you know what is the correct period to fix the interest rate for a home loan?

Since the economic conditions are not under control, still the best economists can not be in a position to foresee the complete certainty like when the interest rates will increase or decrease. This is the reason most of the borrowers choose to fix the loan for a period of less than 3 years.

It is always good to do some investigation on the current financial trends and news before you step on to take a fixed rate home loan so that you will get a thought to know how much the interest rate is. It’s a thumb rule that you will like to fix the interest rate when it is low or near the bottom of the interest rate cycle.

Think about the following pros and cons prior you make a decision on a fixed rate home loan:

The Pros of a Fixed Rate Home Loan are Same regular repayments each month, Stability – fixed repayments allow you to plan your finances and stick to your budget, even in times of economic uncertainty, Cost – The rising of interest rates would not change your monthly repayment.

Fixed Rate Home Loan Cons are Payment will be more than the borrowers on variable rates if interest rates falls, Most lending organizations limit the quantity of further repayments you can have each year, You may be penalized if you pay off your home loan previous to the fixed rate termination date and Fixed loans usually have inadequate features e.g. no redraw facility

Split Rate Home Loans: Want added security of a fixed rate home loan but also the flexibility of a variable rate home loan? With a Split Rate Home Loan you can have exactly that.

What makes a Split Rate Home Loan attractive for first time and existing borrowers is the ability to customise the home loan and add as many features as required. A Split Rate Home Loan can be split in many combinations, e.g. 50/50 split or 80% variable and 20% fixed provided it meets lenders policy

Consider the following pros and cons before you decide on a split rate home loan:

The Advantages are Future interest rate increase can be avoided by fixing portion of your loan, If the interest rates fall then by leaving a small portion of loan at a variable interest rate makes you to get benefits with low rate, and Combine multiple splits together to obtain a fully featured home loan.

The Disadvantages are Different portions of the loan will have different costs like fixed rate loans will have a big break up cost, To the fixed portion of the loan limited amount of extra repayments gets applied, and due to the fixed component there is no flexibility to change from one lender to another.

FHOGS: If you are in the market to buy your first home, you may be eligible for assistance from the NSW Government in the form of a first home buyers grant. This grant has recently been boosted by the Federal Government, making it a very attractive option for first home buyers.

The First Home Owner Grant Scheme (FHOGS) is fully funded by the NSW Government and administered by the Office of State Revenue (OSR). The Scheme was established to assist first home buyers to purchase their first home by offering a $7000 grant.

Eligible first home owners can receive the grant regardless of their income, the area in which they are planning to buy or build, or the value of their first home. The grant is not means tested and no tax is payable on it.

In October 2008, the Australian Government proclaimed a First Home Owner Boost which complements the NSW Government, financed First Home Owner Grant Scheme.In regard to the declaration from the Commonwealth:

First home buyers who purchase established homes will receive a boost of $7,000. These will double the first home buyers grant to $14,000.

The first home buyers who are going to build a new home or buying a newly constructed home will get an extra amount of $14,000. This will totally include to an amount of $21,000 to the first home buyers.

Home Loan Professional Packages: Like Credit rating AAA, AA or A rating you will a superior credit profile. In order to attract people who earns large incomes or the people who are known as low risk borrowers, lenders are offering a special loan deals which are called as Professional packages as a rewards to these customers.

These packages were restricted to professionals like lawyers and accountants before but now these are available to a large range of customers whose income is sufficient or aggregate loan size.

Discounts of 0.2 to 0.7 per cent off lenders’ standard variable interest rate and up to 0.25 per cent off fixed interest rates are offered by Professional package depending on the size of the loan.

Not only will you save on the rates discounts but a Professional Package also offers a range of other discounts on accounts such as credit cards, transaction, margin loans and insurance.

Think about the favorable offers and non favorable things i.e., pros and cons of the professional package.

The Advantages are Fully featured account e.g. redraw, split loans, internet and phone banking, Interest rate discounts on the standard variable rate, Other benefits like Fee Free Transaction accounts and insurance products discounts, and No establishment fees and no ongoing monthly fees on your loans are the benefits offered by some home loan lenders.

Professional Package Home Loan Cons are An annual fee applies to this product