Auctions, women, SME Recovery Scheme: This week’s best banking news

• Strong auctions results again this week across capital cities 
• Women own less property than men, finds CoreLogic 
• Meet the new SME Loan Guarantee Scheme to help boost small Aussie businesses 
• Why Aussies are opting for bill payments services to pay for energy 
• PayPal steps into the Buy Now Pay Later world with its fresh product 
• Digital wallets on the rise 
  

All in this week’s best banking news recap: editor’s pick. 

Auction markets across Australia continue to show strong results 

Last week, 1,587 homes in Australian capital cities were sold, showed recent stats from property research from CoreLogic. 

Plus, preliminary clearance rates came in at 84.5% which was an improvement on last week (which had a clearance rate of 82% - later revised to 79.3%). 

Melbourne and Sydney markets both experienced an upswing in auction clearance rates. With Melbourne’s preliminary rate sitting at 81% (across 477 auctions) and Sydney at 86.7% (across 812 auctions). 

Similarly, smaller markets also remained strong with Canberra’s preliminary clearance rate at 91.5%, Brisbane at 82%, Perth at 82% and Adelaide at 81.7%. 

It’s important to note that the volume of auctions this week were much lower than the week before - as a result of some public holidays. For example, Melbourne held 822 less auctions this week compared to last. 

Read full article: More strong auction results as buyer demand ramps up to find out more about where property prices sit right now. 

CoreLogic reveals that women own less property than men

Another report from CoreLogic this week revealed that people who identify as female represent 26.2% of sole property owners across Australia. 

This is in comparison to sole male owners that make up a higher percentage at 29.9%.

According to CoreLogic’s manager of financial services and insurance, Milena Malev, women’s lower wages is a major obstacle for women towards owning a home. 

Currently, women make 13.4% lower on average than men, according to numbers from the ABS. When comparing full time weekly income between women and men, CoreLogic calculated that females would need ten additional months in order to save for a 20% deposit (on the average-priced Aussie home in 2021). 

“The implications of this are vast. It means men get access to housing sooner, they have more time in the market, and therefore have greater wealth accumulation as well,” Malev says.

Read full article: Women are behind in property ownership, says CoreLogic for more stats from the report. 

New SME Recovery Scheme offers a larger loan guarantee to small businesses

Yesterday, the federal government announced that there is a new version of the SME Recovery Scheme which is set to boost economic activity. 

Under the fresh scheme, the government will guarantee 80% of business loans issued by participating lenders (instead of the current 50%) to small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 

Plus, these businesses will have the opportunity to borrow large amounts of up to $5 million over a ten year period. SMEs can also opt to have their repayments paused for 24 months, rather than just six. 

To qualify for this guarantee businesses must have previously been on JobKeeper between 4 January and 28 March, as well as apply by 1 April 2021 and be approved by 31 December 2021. 

Read full article: New SME Loan Guarantee Scheme to offer bigger benefits to small businesses for comment from Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. 

Aussies turn to bill payment services as energy costs rise

Fresh numbers revealed that Aussies living in states like New South Wales, Tasmania and the Northern Territory experienced a 10% to 20% increase in the dollar amount of their energy bills over the past year. 

This is according the innovative bill payment platform Deferit. 

Deferit co-founder and chief executive officer Jonty Horsowitz claims that the spike in energy prices has seen many customers turn to the payment platform in order to track their incoming bills. 

In fact, numbers showed that 77% of energy bills that were uploaded to the platform were paid on or ahead of time.

With Deferit, customers can upload a bill they are having difficulty paying and the platform will cover the cost straight off the bat. Then, like Buy Now Pay Later, customers pay down the bill in four equal interest-free instalments. 

While there is no late fee associated with this service, there is a $5.99 ongoing monthly service charge.   

Read full article: Rising energy costs? Aussies opt for bill payment services to help for more numbers on energy bills across Australia. 

PayPal announces new Buy Now Pay Later product

As of this week, when you think PayPal you can also think Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL). 

That’s right, the digital payments giant has announced that it will be offering a BNPL product that allows customers up to $1,500 for transactions to be paid back over four instalments. 

There is no interest charged on this product and it will not be regulated under Australian credit laws. However, Paypal is looking into the new BNPL Code of Practice which was released last week. 

Late fees apply with PayPal’s new product, which is capped at $10 for purchases under $125 and $30 for purchases over $125.   

Read full article: PayPal pushes into Buy Now Pay Later with new product for a deep dive into what’s on offer. 

Shoppers ditch physical wallets for digital ones

Nearly half (46.5%) of Aussies are turning to digital wallets to store their debit and credit cards on their smartphones. 

This is according to online financial broker firm Savvy, which found that 87.6% of those that use digital wallets opt for them out of convenience over other payment methods. 

At the moment, 63 out of 74 credit card providers on the Mozo database offer a mobile payment option to customers, including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay etc.  

Savvy also revealed that 43.3% of digital wallet users claim to use the payment method “most of the time.” Meanwhile, 15.9% say they use it “all the time” and 30.9% say “some of the time.” 

Read full article: Half of Aussies reaching for digital wallets over leather for more on popular payment methods for shoppers. 

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