RBA cut a relief for Rob Woolmer, Hanna Gadd who bought their dream home one month before rates started rising

Swan View couple Rob Woolmer and Hanna Gadd bought their “forever home” in April 2022, when the official interest rate sat at just 0.1 per cent. Just one month later, the Reserve Bank of Australia announced the first of what would become an unprecedented run of 13 rate hikes. Mr Woolmer, 39 and Ms Gadd, 34, opted for a variable loan on the four-bedroom, two-bathroom home they purchased for $712,500. Mr Woolmer said while the couple had anticipated rates going up, and had budgeted for a rate of six per cent within five years, they never imagined it would happen so fast. “It happened a lot more suddenly than we expected,” he said. “But because we did think ahead, and went for 70-80 per cent of our borrowing capacity, and left wriggle room, we weren’t hit as hard as others.” But Mr Woolmer said the couple did make sacrifices. “We’ve tightened our belts in terms of discretionary spending, we go to the movies infrequently, I’ve cut out going to the pub, going out to dinner on a Wednesday because we can’t be bothered cooking just isn’t a thing anymore,” he said. Mr Woolmer, who is head of property management at Contessi Properties, and his wife, an operations director for a scrap metal recycling company, estimate they will save about $80 a month thanks to Tuesday’s rate cut. “We gambled, it didn’t quite pay off, but if I had to do it all over again, knowing what I know I maybe would have fixed (our interest rate) for two years,” he said of their decision back in 2022. “But swings and roundabouts, it’s a 25-year commitment and you date the interest rate, you marry the house.”