St George Increase rate for Investors + PPOR $2,000 cash back and LMI Refund

A lot of changes from STG....but i'll summarize...

Owner Occupier

1. LVR 80-85% LMI refund offer for new Owner Occupier home loans - Ie No LMI at 85% for purchase and refin.

2. $2000 cashback for Owner Occupiers purchasing or refinancing their own home

3. Fixed rate decreases on Owner Occupier home loans by up to 0.30%

Investment

4. Standard variable interest rates on our residential investment property loans for new and existing customers will increase by 0.25% to 5.79% for St.George; effective 21 August 2015.

5. Fixed rates on residential investment property loans will also increase by up to 0.30%, effective 4 August 2015.

 

FYI.

New PPOR rates with STG

1 year -4.39%
2 year - 4.19%
3 year - 4.29%
4 year - 4.59%
5 year - 4.59%

 

Is STG a good bank to choose from if you're buying PPOR and looking to do equity release after about 12 month?

 

Do you know if the lending criteria for st George is the same as for Westpac? If there's an area (eg close to Green Square) that Westpac won't go above 80% lvr, will it be the same for St George?

 

They have different policies. They do however share some things, one of which is their restricted development list. Which is perhaps what you are referring to with green square?

 

Not so much a restricted development list, but they've identified the area as potentially higher risk due to the huge amount of new apartment towers being built there and in Zetland that they've capped the max for a PPOR to 80% even for existing units and townhouses. Assume that St George would have same limits

 

Correct. Westpac and Stg both share the same "restricted" area and development list" ...areas that WBC group don't like in particular are Zetland/ Greend sq/ Mascot/ Part of the City/ Homebush West/ Alexandria/ Pyrmont ( especially pyrmont lol) ...it doesn't mean they won't lend but they may reduce it to 80% LVR etc...

They are fine with Equity release...however their servicing is average..ok for ppl with up to 2-3 properties on average income generally speaking.

 

That is looking quite good. I have an IP loan with ANZ now, but I am looking to buy my first PPR soon. I want to revaluate my IP and top up my existing loan to help fund the purchase.

In this situation, how does STG compare to ANZ? I am partially fixed, so I can't move my IP loan.

 

nice and handy, just wondering how does STG stack up when it comes to I/O loans for PPOR?

 

What's this about thing about WBC/STG not going above 80% for certain areas?
Can someone elaborate... and possibly explain why this is the case?

 

Decent rate for NEW customer to STG....But note their servicing is S*** house now..so plan your equity carefully with STG and WBC.

They have a "blacklist" which outlines certain building and areas as either;

- Undesirable so NO LENDING AT ALL... - this is common in areas with lots of off the plan ie full of "Chinese buyers and overseas buyers" and as we all know the WBC has over 40% market share in the overseas buyers market and what does the overseas Chinese buyers like or can only buy - OFF THE PLAN ...so this causes a "risk exposure problem"

- Overexposed - Similar to the above, but they will just cap the LVR to 80% and to 60% in certain buildings..

The STG and WBC "building list" is over 50 pages long and overs ~3,000+ buildings in all 5 states. ( NSW/ VIC/ SA/ WA/ QLD/ TAS..)

 

LoL add Rhodes to that blacklist. It's Little Hongkong if you know what I mean. It's way too dense.

 

Personally I would not be to brash in a refi just yet. I think this is just the beginning of OO offerings, wait about 1 month to see what everyone puts on the table and then make a decision.

 

I agree - it's still very much early days. I wouldn't jump into any sort of refi right now - whether it be for a PPOR or an IP.

Cheers

Jamie

 

Just got IP through with WBC on 90+LMI before the changes. I assume equity release stuffed for some time til I'm way under 80%.

When you talk servicing though, you're meaning using them as a new IP lender meaning they'll be checking serviceability against not-great criteria? Wouldn't that mean they should be one of the first in the portfolio line to use?

 

Do you know if they have the same panel of valuers?

 

I know Westpac have an assigned valuer for each postcodes/area. Not sure about St george. Rams have a similar system to Westpac, an assigned valuer to each postcode, but the valuer for each postcode is determined by the franchisee in that postcode.

 

So thoughts on current SGB rates in comparison to others now the SVR will be increasing to 4.79%...

I have circa $2M loans with SGB currently at 4.14% - based on the 25bps increase this will take me to 4.39% which is high in comparison to some of the basic loans.com rates around of 4% but any other majors/second tier banks able to provide low 4's for this amount of debt (ie the current 4.14% I am on now).

 

Apologies - I was referring to 5.79% and current SVR of 5.39% above - not 4.79 & 4.39 lol!!

 

hmmmm very tempted to transfer my WBC PPOR loan to STG just for the $2k!!!