Macquarie Bank

With so much of your income going towards your rent at the moment, buying your own home might seem like a distant dream. Consider this all of your rent is going towards making a property investor richer, and that rent is money that you will never see again. On the other hand, purchasing your own home is the first step on the path to becoming a property investor yourself, and the money you pay towards your home loan results in you owning your own home.

So, what's a renter to do? With ever-increasing competition between banks and lenders in the Australian mortgage market, new products are continually being introduced as home loan solutions to entice borrowers to certain financial institutions. One such product is the no-deposit home loan option offered by Macquarie.

Is there a chance you be paying less each month for your mortgage? Maybe its time for you to look at refinancing your home loan.

Refinancing involves switching your home loan to another lender to take advantage of better interest rates or features that may help to improve your financial situation.

Macquarie Bank offer a refinancing service as part of their Macquarie Mortgages suite of products. They encourage homeowners to refinance their loans for a number of reasons to get a better home loan, to make home improvements, debt consolidation, tax benefits and releasing home equity in order to make investments.

If you need features that you don't currently have access to, refinancing could help. These features can include an offset account, access to your funds, a lower interest rate, interest only options and the low doc or no doc options available to self-employed borrowers through some lenders.

With a standard home loan, banks must protect their lending, so the more of a risk you are seen to be, the more you are likely to pay in fees, interest and lenders mortgage insurance. So, what happens if you're not considered much of a risk at all?

Once limited to professionals such as lawyers, doctors and accountants, professional packages such as Macquarie Bank's Executive Plus Express are now widely available to people regarded as low-risk borrowers, such as those on higher incomes or with significant assets.

Professional packages generally offer a discount off the lenders standard variable interest rate. Depending on the amount being borrowed, bigger discounts may apply. The Macquarie Executive Plus Express offers a step-down interest rate, which means the discount increases for each year of your loan, up to three years when the rate will plateau. The first year attracts a 0.25% per annum discount, the second year a 0.50% per annum discount and the third year a 0.80% per annum discount on the bank's standard variable rate.