Australian Money Forum

RENTERS will be given a "rent holiday" and a month's grace from eviction in New South Wales when banks repossess properties under new laws to prevent people from being turfed out of their homes.
The attempt to put a curb on heartless banks ejecting renters without notice will be put before Parliament this week.

Included in the protection measures are the introduction of a minimum 30-day notice to tenants to vacate from mortgagees seeking vacant possession.

Tenants will also be able to immediately cease paying rent when notified of a mortgage default.

SINCE the Government announced it would make available at least $2billion of taxpayers' money to bail out commercial property investors, there has been much thrashing about as to the rationale underlying this surprising decision. Perhaps the most curious defence was offered yesterday by the ordinarily conservative economist, Ian Harper.

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has, for the first time, acknowledged that Australian household budgets will have another two years of battering from the global financial spin-out.

And he says there will be "bumps and pain" along the way and higher unemployment.

"People ask how long," Mr Rudd told The Daily Telegraph.

"I think it's fair to say we're not looking at a challenge over a couple of months. We're looking at a challenge over a couple of years.

"And this will be tough."

CLEARANCE rates again crashed to record lows over the weekend, with the lure of the increased first-home owners grant failing to offset buyers' concerns about the global financial crisis.

In Sydney, the auction clearance rate plummeted to 39.6 per cent, 10 points lower than the figure recorded last weekend and 24 per cent lower than the figure recorded for the same weekend last year.

In Melbourne, the clearance rate fell 7 points to 45 per cent, 32 per cent lower than the figure recorded for the last weekend in October last year.