{"id":38558,"date":"2022-05-12T10:19:41","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T22:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertynoise.co.nz\/au\/?p=38558"},"modified":"2022-05-12T10:19:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T22:19:41","slug":"clive-palmers-united-australia-party-is-promising-to-cap-mortgage-interest-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertynoise.co.nz\/au\/clive-palmers-united-australia-party-is-promising-to-cap-mortgage-interest-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party is promising to cap mortgage interest rates"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOTO: Clive Palmer. FILE<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the cost of living surging and interest rates rising for the first time in more than a decade, a cap on mortgage repayments would come as welcome relief for millions of borrowers. But can it be done and who would end up paying for it?<\/p>\n

Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party (UAP) has been spruiking a 3 per cent, five-year cap on mortgage interest rates\u00a0as the centrepiece of its election campaign.<\/p>\n

It has featured in a large share of the UAP’s $16 million worth of ads on Google and YouTube since the election was called, as well as on billboards and TV ads that are expected to push the party’s total campaign advertising spend to $40 million.<\/p>\n

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Billboard\u00a0for the United Australia Party in regional Queensland advertising the party’s 3 per cent mortgage cap policy.(ABC Capricornia: Tobi Loftus<\/span><\/span>)<\/cite><\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But how would it work?<\/p>\n

Details of the policy are scarce, and come from media questions to the party’s leader Craig Kelly and Queensland Senate candidate Clive Palmer.<\/p>\n

At his\u00a0National Press Club appearance in April, Mr Palmer talked about regulating interest rates.<\/p>\n

“I think we can legislate to limit home loans because if you look back in the [19]60s and the ’70s, that’s how the interest rates operated in this country,” he said.<\/p>\n

In this comment, Mr Palmer is correct, according to Lowy Institute senior fellow and former Reserve Bank board member Dr John Edwards.<\/p>\n

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Economist John Edwards estimates that the mortgage cap would cost $13 billion per year, per percentage point of subsidy and “somebody’s got to pay”.(ABC News: Daniel Irvine<\/span><\/span>)<\/cite><\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“We used to cap everything,” he told The Business.<\/p>\n