The following article is from today’s Australian. IMO wouldn’t...

The following article is from today’s Australian. IMO wouldn’t be surprised if this uptick applies to Apollo’s grey nomads also and the business sees an uplift!


‘ScoMo effect’ sends us cruising

Joyce Moullakis12:00AM May 29, 2019

The billion-dollar cruise and tourism industry, which counts self-funded retirees as key customers, is in turnaround mode.


From home buying to ocean cruising, the “ScoMo effect” is showing signs of breathing life back into the economy.

Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn yesterday signalled the return of home-buyer confidence.

The lender last week saw the most weekly mortgage applications in more than six months, buoyed by Scott Morrison’s come-from-behind election result and the easing of lending rules.

His comments were mirrored by mortgage brokers — an industry widely seen as a leading indicator of the property market.

Aussie Home Loans chief executive James Symond told The Australian that the number of enquires over the past week had increased by 15 per cent.

The billion-dollar cruise and tourism industry, which counts self-funded retirees as key customers, is also in turnaround mode with more bookings and inquiries. Nervousness about the loss of franking credit cash refunds for some retirees under a Labor government had kept travellers at bay. Simon McGrath from Australia’s largest hotelier Accor said the booking pace changed on the Monday after the election across its network of 390 hotels throughout the Pacific. He said business executives were showing more confidence. “Absolutely bookings went up last week,” Mr McGrath said.

Mr Comyn made his comments at a Trans-Tasman Business Circle lunch in Sydney where he also said personal tax cuts and a jump in consumer sentiment would be more effective in stimulating the economy than official interest rate cuts. In parts of the economy, he said, “we see there is quite a strong rebound”.

“There is a lot of interest in property, and we did have the strongest week in (loan) applications we’ve seen in more than six months,” Mr Comyn said. “It did feel, certainly from a demand perspective, that there was quite a big shift in sentiment.”

Mr Comyn cautioned that one week’s data did not necessarily evolve into a trend, but there were positive signs that buyers were returning to the housing market.

Mr Symond said: “The election result has helped reframe confidence in the real estate market and that is flowing through to the home-finance sector, when we have seen strong growth in our inquiry levels over the last week,”.

His comments followed the best auction clearance rates of the year last weekend, above 60 per cent across Australia’s capital cities, according to CoreLogic data.

The figures indicated strength in Melbourne and Sydney.

David Bailey, chief executive of ASX-listed mortgage broker AFG, has also noticed a surge in inquiry levels in the wake of the Prime Minister’s win. “It’s reasonable to assume that the knock-on effect has been the level of customers who were sitting back and waiting to see what happened have started to mobilise and, to that end, the mortgage brokers are getting busier,” he said.

Retirees were worried that under Labor’s plans they would lose their ability to write off income from property investment and lose valuable capital gains tax discounts.

Norwegian Cruise Lines’ Asia-Pacific managing director, Steve Odell, said that by the middle of last week, inquiries and bookings started to pick up. “People who have investments are more secure about what they spend,” he said.

“Travel is a big item to spend, particularly for retirees. The outcome of the election for our business is very positive.”

Mr Odell, who runs Regent Seven Seas, Oceania and the NCL line, said that two weeks before the May 18 election, cruise bookings had slowed right down.

He said retirees were now planning cruise bookings well into 2020. Bookings on Mediterranean trips in September and October were also rising.

A number of industry groups said their members had reported a significant uptick in confidence since the election.

Council of Small Businesses Organisations Australia chief executive Peter Strong relayed the story of a small business loan broker whose phone had “rung off the hook” since the election.

“It was non-stop, businesses ringing up from all over the country looking for a loan,” he said.

Mr Strong said his members had been terrified about what a resurgent ACTU could look like, had Labor formed government.

Denita Wawn, chief executive of Master Builders Australia, said industry had had the most positive post-election bounce in confidence she had experienced in 25 years as an industry advocate.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/bu...g/news-story/e694c704a835175060cb2dbe318f731d