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Virgin Money has signalled its intention to muscle in on the Australian home loan market by offering new Virgin mortgagees two free economy class airfares on Virgin Blue.
Announcing the initiative at Sydney's Walsh Bay, Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson said the move was motivated by a recent Sensis survey showing holidays were being cancelled because of higher mortgage repayments.
"Twenty to 25 per cent of people can't afford to go on holidays, who could afford to go on them before," Sir Richard said.
"I think that if people can examine what they're paying on their home loans, and make sure they switch to home loan companies that are charging less, that will help.
"But equally, if people sign up to a Virgin home loan at least if they want to go to Perth and back they'll be able to."
Virgin Money has been in the Australian home lending market since March of 2006.
The company says it has A$2 billion ($2.3 billion) worth of applications in the pipeline.
- AAP
