Yesterday we saw the first meeting of the year for the RBA and a cash rate cut of 0.25% to 2.25%, the lowest in Governer Glenn Stevens (and many of our) lifetime.

Great news for people holding debt or wanting debt as money will now be cheaper to borrow.

Financial services providers will usually cut their variable mortgage rates as soon as today, with fixed mortgage rates dropping over the next month. See a previous post on how the cash rate drives mortgage rates.

The reason for this rate cut is to stimulate the Australian economy. A number of domestic indicators as well as the continuing state of the world economy has prompted the RBA to support the economy via a boost in Monetary Policy.

Which means things aren’t super great at the moment, but as long as you have your finances in order you can take advantage of this opportunity for cheaper debt.

However the typical trade off for a lower cash rate often is not good for property buyers. The ability to borrow money cheaper, and/or borrow more leads to increased buying demand and therefore competition in the market. And this is from both owner occupiers and even more so, investors.

The market is forecasting another 0.25% rate cut in the first half of this year (at this stage, speculation can change daily). Stay tuned for the next RBA meeting on the 3 March…