Stawell residents will need to pay more off their mortgage each month if the banks follow the Reserve Bank of Australia's rate rise announcement and pass it on to their consumers.
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However the region's real estate agents don't expect it will have much of an impact on Stawell homeowners.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) lifted the cash rate by 0.25 percentage points to 0.35 per cent, in the first increase since November 2010.
Bruce McIlvride of Nutriens Harcourts Stawell, said the rises had been expected for a while, but it would be a while before the impact of the changes would be seen.
"It's probably to early to see.... it will probably just have people thinking a little bit longer before they may do something," Mr McIlvride said.
"I'd be hopeful that wouldn't cause a lot of financial stress."
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Mr McIlvride said he hoped banks had done their due diligence before clearing applicants for loans.
"You hope the banks, being the ones who leant the money in the first instance, have done their job properly in researching people's capacity (to pay back their loans)," he said.
"Within that research is making sure there's capacity for people to absorb some increases.
"It's not new thinking that these interest rate rises were likely to be coming this year or even next year."
Monaghans Real Estate director Terry Monaghan said he didn't expect the change to have much of an impact to the Stawell housing market.
"I think after eleven years of falls, a 0.25 per cent rise is not quite as bad as it is made out," Mr Monaghan said.
"Nobody wants to see interest rates go up, but I don't think it's going to a significant deterrent in our market."
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Mr Monaghan said Stawell's market was well-situated to weather a rise in interest rates.
"A lot of the loans around (Stawell) were established three or four years ago, when prices were half of what they are now," he said.
"A lot of people have got a lot of equity in their homes anyway, if they're purchased pre-COVID."
However, Mr Mornaghan added that a rise in inflation was necessary in order to curb rapidly growing inflation rates.
"That must happen to control inflation, otherwise we'll see... if you don't control inflation then the dollars in your pay-pack aren't worth as much," Mr Monaghan said.
"It's to slow down the inflation beast... it needs to be corrected now, or slow down now.
"We've had eleven years of drops, don't get scared, we've been on the gravy train for a long time.
"A little bit of pain now might stop inflation getting away too far."
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Stawell residents have already felt the inflation burden in recent months with everyday expenses such as petrol prices rising astronomically and RBA governor Mr Phillip Lowe said it comes hand in hand with the cash rate rise.
"The economy has proven to be resilient and inflation has picked up more quickly, and to a higher level, than was expected," Mr Lowe said.
"There is also evidence that wages growth is picking up. Given this, and the very low level of interest rates, it is appropriate to start the process of normalising monetary conditions."
Mr Lowe said further increases in interest rates would be necessary over the coming months.
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