BY GARETH KENT
\nDirector, Preston Rowe Patterson<\/p>\n
For home buyers. <\/strong><\/p>\n It is all about affordability and an aspirational, but achievable lifestyle.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Affordability?<\/strong><\/p>\n Rising interest rates have impacted affordability, but let’s put that in perspective. If you take a long-term view, in the last 20 years variable mortgage rates have averaged about 5.60%. In 1974 rates exceeded 10.00% and stayed there till 1995. In the next 27 years they have then averaged 5.60%. We lucky souls have just lived through the once-in-a-lifetime, lowest interest rates ever recorded, some as low as 2.20%. The current medium variable rate appears to be set at about 4.10%. We expect it to climb further, but anything sub 5.60% is a good result.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Changing lifestyle expectations!<\/strong><\/p>\n COVID has completely changed our expectations about how we work and live.<\/p>\n A little recent example: I was attending a meeting at the fabulous Collins Square building in Docklands. It was a Friday, and it was a ghost town! I noticed that nobody was wearing a suit, let alone a tie; and I even got a park that only cost me $14 per hour! Feeling like the only one who dressed up for the prom, I wondered where everyone would be, these 10,000 or so workers who spend their time in this four-towered monster. My question was quickly answered when I met my appointment, who was happy to tell me he was off home to Ballarat as soon as our meeting was over, and that would be at 11 am!<\/p>\n Work time is no longer fixed between 8.30am and 5.30pm with two fifteen-minute smokos and an hour lunch, \u2018Peter Lalor\u2019 would roll over in his grave! Work is when you want it, or rather when you have too; from your laptop – whilst you have lunch, next to your pool or after you picked up the kids. Then you get out one more email between making dinner, teaching kids to read and yelling at the youngest to get in the bath. This is now the new working normal, and it’s not being stuck on a train or in traffic. I like it. It’s healthier and probably more efficient!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n