Property markets are driven by an ever-changing set of political, social and economic fundamentals. Macro and micro influences, such as government policy, population growth, employment and wages stability and general consumer sentiment all weigh in on the equation and in turn, push housing values up, down or sideways.

Even though the GFC is now a fading acronym in most economists’ minds, the effects of 2008’s worldwide glitch in the fiscal matrix are still having a few ripple effects in Australia’s banking sector.

Six years is a long time in the globally enmeshed, modern world of high finance. It was only 2008 when the warning bells alarmed for Aussie lenders; as we watched the US and much of Europe become an example, illustrating why a glut of sub-prime (read dodgy) mortgages can be your country’s economic undoing.

Property investors…have you noticed the avalanche of information coming your way of late regarding ‘the new black’ when it comes to using residential real estate assets for your retirement fund?