What you need to know about Investor lending

4 min read | 25 Mar 2019

In 2018 lenders were restricted by the number of loans they could offer investors (vs owner occupiers), as well as the type of loan they could offer, leaving investors with less than ideal rates, and value. On top of that, lending criteria has got much tighter since the Royal Commission, and it feels as though investors aren’t going to cop a break.

Thankfully some of the lending restrictions have been lifted (even though it has still not made much difference to current investor offerings), but fat good that does when you are already locked into a less than ideal investment loan right? 

To make things more complicated, rental prices haven’t been going gangbusters either (only 0.4 per cent growth in 2018), resulting in less yield in some areas. The good news, is they are heading into more positive territory because of the decline in house prices: silver linings and all that. 

According to CoreLogic, they are above 4 per cent for the first time since May 2016, but still below the decade average of 4.29 per cent.

There is also a big question mark over the future of negative gearing if the government changes in May, especially on established properties, and there’s talk of reducing the tax-free threshold for capital gains too.

It feels like investors have been propping up the economy for too long, with no rewards, and are being punished with higher rates and restrictions instead.

We promise this is not a whingey post. You deserve red-hot interest rates too. Ours will save you a helluva lot more than most of the others.

Investing in property is a long term strategy, so there will be swings and roundabouts, but you don’t need to be locked into a long term crappy product because you were unlucky enough to get a loan during a difficult time for investors.

Athena loves investors, and we offer some of the best rates you will find. Our opening offer for investors looking to refinance is 3.99 per cent (for a variable Principal and Interest loan), and only 4.09 per cent for interest-only (up to five years). We let you choose your investment strategy, rather than lock you into a specific loan type.

We are also all for matching your payments to your cash flow. So depending on when your tenants pay rent, you can pay your mortgage weekly, fortnightly or monthly, making managing your investment property a bucketload easier.

We like to think our relationship with you will be long term, but not too long. We want you to pay your loan off sooner, and will go to great lengths to keep your prices low. We want your loan to be shorter.

While we don’t offer honeymoons rates, we prefer you to feel like you are loved for the life of your loan, consistently keeping your rates low, and giving you red hot rates. We will even reward you with a 0.01 per cent discount for every year you are with us, for the first five years.

No fees and charges either (except third party costs). We want you to love us but also to leave us as soon as possible — f*ck fees.

We also don’t play favourites. If we offer a better rate for new customers, we will apply that same low rate to all our borrowers who have an Athena like-for-like^ loan. We are pretty excited to be the first Aussie lender to offer that.

We know we are sexy but will never play ‘hard to get’ – you can contact our home loan experts seven days a week, by phone or email.

Our innovative technology also means faster approval times for a loan.

Does that make us cheap and easy? That might be taking our innuendos a step too far, but you get the picture.

At the moment we are only able to refinance loans for investors and owner-occupiers, but keep your eyes peeled for purchase home loans in coming months.

Contact us to find out more about refinancing your investment loan.