ASIC stops Remara fund offers as majors tip 4.6%

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"We are now well beyond warnings," ASIC commissioner Simone Constant told the private credit sector this week. The regulator has issued 21-day stop orders on three retail products under the $39.9 million Remara fund.

Private credit in Australia grew from $35 billion in 2015 to $213 billion at the end of 2024, according to EY's Australian debt market update. This week it met a tightening property market: Bathla halted work on 13 sites as its short-term funding ran out; all four major banks tip a rate rise on 29 September; and APRA data puts 90-day mortgage arrears at 1.01%, above the average since 2019.

ASIC stops offers of three retail private credit products

ASIC has made interim stop orders against three private credit products offered by Melbourne Securities Corporation under the Remara Cash Management Fund, which held $39.9 million at 31 December. ASIC raised concerns that the fund's target market documents presented it as suitable for retail investors seeking capital preservation, with an inappropriate low-risk rating. The regulator also noted the fund can hold all of its assets in shadow-rated instruments, which carry internal ratings rather than public ones. For 21 days, unless revoked, the orders bar the products from being offered to retail clients.

ASIC announced the orders the day commissioner Simone Constant told a Sydney finance summit that the first "stress fractures" are emerging in private credit. "The sector should prepare for enforcement action," she said. Investor Daily reports that ASIC's surveillance findings on wholesale and retail funds are due in the coming months.

All four major banks now tip a hike to 4.6%

All four major banks now forecast a 0.25 percentage point rise in the cash rate, to 4.6%, when the Reserve Bank (RBA) board meets on 29 September. CBA and ANZ brought forward their November calls after Governor Michele Bullock told a parliamentary committee that "some of these upside risks to inflation appear to be materialising". The move would be the fourth increase of 2026 and would take the cash rate to its highest level since 2011. ANZ also forecasts a further rise in November, to 4.85%.

Rising unemployment has not moved market pricing. The jobless rate also sits at 4.6%, a five-year high, yet markets still price roughly a 95% chance of a hike. Lenders have moved first on fixed loans: Canstar counts 18 that lifted at least one fixed rate this month, Macquarie twice.

Bathla stops building on 13 sites as rescue funding runs out

Construction has stopped across 13 Bathla Group sites after short-term funding from five lenders ran out, administrator Teneo said. The Western Sydney developer collapsed in late August with debts of up to $3.6 billion, and almost 3,000 homes and apartments face limbo if it moves into liquidation. Teneo's Stephen Longley said talks with lenders on further cash have ended and the focus is now an orderly sale of the group's subdivision and landbank sites. It is the second round of staff cuts, after 213 people lost their jobs earlier this month.

The NSW Supreme Court had already extended the administration by 12 months, to 13 September 2027. ASIC's Simone Constant pointed to Bathla this week, Investor Daily reports, saying developers exposed to private credit are particularly vulnerable when conditions tighten. Managing director Bhart Bhushan had blamed softening sales, May budget changes and rising construction costs.

›Mortgages 90 or more days in arrears reached $25.9 billion, or 1.01% of all home loans, in the June quarter, APRA data shows, above the 0.93% average since 2019. Owner-occupier loans with a deposit of 5% or less reached a record 4.31% of all new lending.

›The Federal Court has frozen the assets of Star Investment Group, developer of the 325-home Lake Narracan Resort in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, on ASIC's application. The group offered investors fixed income of up to 12% a year from $100,000; the case returns on 6 October.

›Treasury has opened consultation on collecting more data from managed investment schemes, after the Shield and First Guardian collapses exposed gaps in regulators' visibility. The sector holds $2.9 trillion, and current collections capture about 47% of registered schemes.

›About 50% of 938 financial professionals in VanEck's 2026 survey report holdings in private market assets, down from 60% in 2025. Liquidity constraints were the top concern, cited by 39%.

›More than 60% of small and medium property developers expect the proposed 30% minimum tax on discretionary trust distributions to affect project timing or viability, according to polling for the Property Council and four other industry groups. Of those, 37% said at least one project would be cancelled.

›The combined capital city auction clearance rate fell 4.6 percentage points to 54% as volumes rose 15.6% to 1,832, Cotality's preliminary figures show. Sydney's 54.2% was its weakest result in seven weeks.

›Offshore buyers account for 34% of Australian commercial property trading so far in 2026, up from 23% in 2025, Commonwealth Bank data shows. A $6.2 billion joint purchase of a self-storage REIT by Singapore's GIC and Canada's Brookfield did much of the offshore heavy lifting.

›New dwelling prices rose 5.7% in the year to July, up from 0.7% a year earlier, as builders pass on labour and material costs, ABS figures show, MPA reports. Master Builders Australia puts the construction workforce shortfall at 141,000.

›A record 896 cranes are working across Australia, the RLB Crane Index shows, with Melbourne at an all-time high of 224. Sydney's count fell to 336 in the third quarter, from 346 in the first.

›Non-bank lender ColCap has priced a $3 billion issue of bonds backed by home loans, the largest by an Australian non-bank. The deal was upsized from a $1 billion guide on investor demand.