Lumo Finance

We align you to the best loan, for whatever you need it for.

09/06/2026

The RBA meets again on Tuesday 16 June, and if you've got a mortgage you're probably wondering the same thing as everyone else — are they going to lift rates again?

Quick recap. The cash rate's at 4.35% after the RBA bumped it up by 0.25% on 5 May. The vote that day was 8 to 1, not the usual clean sweep, and Governor Michele Bullock said afterwards that the Board now thinks rates are “a bit restrictive.” Read between the lines: they'd like to sit back and see what happens for a while.

Two things are bothering them. Fuel and grocery costs have climbed thanks to the Middle East conflict, and inflation here was already too sticky before that. What they're really watching is whether higher prices start to feel “normal” — once that mindset sets in, it's much harder to unwind.

Right now, markets are pricing in around a 76% chance the RBA holds on 16 June. Not impossible they move again, but a pause looks far more likely.

The honest answer? Nobody knows yet. The jobs and inflation data due over the next couple of weeks will probably make the call for them.

12/05/2026

Australia's housing stock is now worth $12.5 trillion. Total mortgages against it: $2.5 trillion. Do the maths and the country has a collective LVR of 20%. Owners, on average, have four dollars of equity for every dollar of debt. 55% of Australian household wealth is tied up in property - which is exactly why neither the banks, the government, nor the RBA wants to see prices fall. If you already own, there's a decent chance you're sitting on more equity than you realise. That equity is useful - upgrade, invest, renovate, or just refinance onto something sharper. Most people never check. Might be worth a look.

07/05/2026

Eight years ago, the average Aussie could afford a mortgage on the median house in more than half the country's suburbs. Today, that number has collapsed to 16%. Same person. Same job. The map just shrank around them. This is why “just save harder” stopped being useful advice about five years ago. The suburbs didn't change — the maths did. The 16% that are still in reach aren't where everyone's looking, which is both the problem and the opportunity. A broker who knows the borrowing rules AND the suburb data is genuinely worth their weight — not every loan is built for every postcode. We do the maths both ways.

05/05/2026

The market feels confusing right now - rates moving, lenders tightening, property prices doing their thing. That's exactly why you need someone in your corner who actually knows what's going on. We do. Let's chat.

30/04/2026

The Bank of Mum and Dad has quietly become one of the biggest lenders in Australia - big enough that the Productivity Commission reckons it'd rank between the 5th and 9th largest mortgage lender if it were a real bank. Average gift in 2025: $74,040. The bigger shift? In 2021, about a third of parents didn't expect repayment. Now it's three-quarters. The “bank” bit is mostly fiction. First home buyers who get family help typically enter the market two years earlier and walk in with 41% more savings left over. If that's your situation - or you're the parent doing the giving - there are smart ways to structure it so nobody regrets it later. Worth a chat.

28/04/2026

The longer you stay with your bank, the more they charge you. That's not cynicism - it's ACCC data. Borrowers with loans less than a year old pay average rates. Between 3–5 years, they're paying 0.58% more. At 10+ years old, the gap blows out to 1.04%. On a $600,000 mortgage, that 1.04% costs you about $6,000 a year. Over a decade? $60,000 in interest you didn't need to spend. This isn't a glitch - it's a pricing strategy that banks use on the assumption that you won't bother switching. Most people don't. A 15 minute refinance check costs you nothing. Not checking is the expensive part.

23/04/2026

Six months ago, auctioneers were running victory laps. Clearance rates sitting at 70%. Vendors calling the shots. Now? 60.9% and trending down. When fewer homes sell under the hammer, it tells you something quietly important: buyers are pushing back on prices. That's a different market to the one everyone got used to. If you're thinking about buying, this is the kind of shift that matters more than whatever the headlines are saying about “record growth”. If you're selling, maybe don't expect the crowd of ten bidders your neighbour had last year. Either way - know the market you're actually in. That's what we do.

21/04/2026

Usually the headline ag lending story is grain or beef. Last year it was chickens. Egg and poultry lending grew 22% in 2024–25 - the fastest growth of any farming sector - after the 2024 bird flu outbreak forced producers to restock flocks and cover biosecurity costs while sales dropped. That's what rural finance actually looks like: one disease outbreak, and an entire industry has to borrow its way back to production. A home loan is a set-and-forget. Agri finance is a living thing - it moves with seasons, commodity prices, and the occasional black swan. Whether you're running 5,000 layers or 5,000 head of cattle, the right loan structure is the difference between weathering a shock and being flattened by one. We get it.

16/04/2026

The Reserve Bank has now raised interest rates twice since the start of the year, and the cash rate sits at 4.10% heading into the May meeting on the 5th.

The reasoning behind the back-to-back hikes comes down to a few things running hotter than the RBA expected - inflation still sitting at 3.7% (well above the 2-3% target), a tight jobs market, and stronger economic growth than anyone really anticipated through late 2025. On top of that, the conflict in the Middle East has sent fuel prices sharply higher, and the RBA has made it clear they're not willing to sit around and hope that settles down on its own.

Worth noting: the March decision was a tight one. Five board members voted to raise, four voted to hold. That tells you the board isn't moving in lockstep - it was a genuine debate about timing, not direction.

Looking ahead to May, financial markets are currently pricing in roughly a 54% chance of another hike. It's close to a coin flip, but all four major banks are now forecasting another increase. The Q1 inflation data drops in late April and will almost certainly be what tips the board one way or the other.

If your rate hasn't been reviewed in a while, now's a good time to check in and make sure your loan is still working for you - not against you.

09/04/2026

10.2% a year, for 10 years. That's the average annual price growth of Australian broadacre farmland, according to ABARES' June 2025 data. For context, that doubles an asset roughly every seven years. Between 2020 and 2023, the surge was even sharper - median farmland values jumped 79% in just three years. 2024 saw some cooling, with national median prices easing around 6%, but the long-term trend line points clearly upward. For farmers, this is the double-edged sword ABARES talks about. Higher land values mean more equity and borrowing capacity. They also make it harder for the next generation to buy in. Rural lending doesn't work like a standard home loan - seasonal income, land-backed security, and different lender relationships are all part of the picture. We know how it works. Link in bio.

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Shop 7, 20 Echlin Street
Townsville, QLD
4810

Telephone

+61401447299

Website

https://lumofinance.com.au/

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