That’s a wrap!
As 2017 draws to a close, the Oak Financial team have been reflecting on the year past and looking towards the new year.
In 2017 we:
- We proudly surpassed 555 Oak Financial clients
- We formed a partnership with Oak Business Partners which enabled us to expand our brand and provide our clients with an extra, complementary service
- Oak Financial passed the three year trading mark
- And, we brought on four new team members – Ardie, Ken, Yunita (who are part of Oak Australia family) and Frank – our new office dog (that’s him in the pic – cute isn’t he?)
So what does 2018 have in store for Oak Financial?
We’re already so excited about our plans for 2018, including:
Oak Property Partners will be kicking off with Felix at the helm, steering the ship and running the team. We’ll be expanding the Oak brand and services to our clients under the property banner. This new business arm will provide our clients with property services such as property sales and rental management. The brand new website is under construction – keep an eye out for that one soon.
We will be on the search for new digs – we have a bigger, better office on our Christmas wish list.
The team will continue to be focused on mortgage brokering and taking excellent care of our client base, while expanding into other, relevant fields.
The trends the Oak Financial team are watching for 2018
For the new year there’s a few trends we’re watching on behalf of our client base.
- The mortgage brokering industry as a whole will continue to remain in the headlines with the expected Royal Commission into the banks.
- Banks are showing more of an appetite for business lending, with lower rates across O/O and investments.
- The housing market selling has cooled. And, alternatively, buyers are still actively looking and will continue to purchase into 2018. Some more specific possibilities:
- Interest rates could change 8 times over the next 2 years – according to some economists, Australian interest rates are likely to rise over the next 2 years and see a return of 7% levels. But, before you panic – it’s likely that these rate rises will be closely watched and strategic – as in – the RBA moves may start out quarterly with the economic impact measured before another move is made. Of course, these predicted rises will depend on many factors such as the Australian dollar value, employment growth (or lack thereof), economic strength and household spending.
- Property prices will stabilise – a rise in supply of new dwelling and slowing investor demand as interest rates rise could result in lower property prices.
- The construction boom could peak – already over the last quarter we’ve seen a 2.4% fall in construction work (new residential by 4.4% and renovations by 5.1%). With predicted interest rate rises it’s unlikely that construction will boom again in the short term. We expect new dwelling investment will return to normalised levels by late 2018 and into 2019.
- No housing crash on the horizon – there’s been lots of talk about a housing market crash and if you look at some of date you could believe a crash is imminent. But, let’s look at things in context – over the past 5 years Sydney property values rose by a staggering, estimated 75% in value. That’s a growth of $521,000 and over the past year Sydney prices rose by 13%. This does equate to a peak in a typical housing market cycle – the phase before a correction phase. People often confuse this correction for a crash but it’s just an extended slow period where prices drop and stagnate. With the housing market cycling every 7-10 years, the correction phase is expected to hover over 2018. We expect the correction phase to linger a little longer than usual due to Australia wage growth stagnation and the anticipated interest rate rises.
- The new, popular kid on the block – cryptocurrency will ensure some interesting questions are posed in 2018, such as ‘will you be able to purchase a home using crypto funds’?
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support in 2017, wish you and your family a very merry Christmas and a happy, prosperous New Year.
