Home loan lending pace picks up
Home loan lending rose at its fastest rate in almost five years during January, Reserve Bank data released today shows.
Friday, March 1st 2013, 11:54AM 
3 Comments
Mortgage lending up was by $952 million in the month, to a new total of $178.66 billion.
It’s the biggest rise, in dollar terms, for nearly five years.
For the week ended February 22, there were 7557 home loan approvals, worth $1.33 billion.
The increasing pace of lending growth has been flagged as a concern for the Reserve Bank, particularly in Auckland.
Earlier this week, Finance Minister Bill English said the Government was considering formalising the use of macroprudential tools to cool excessive credit cycles.
Its proposals, including requiring banks to hold more capital, adjusting banks’ funding ratios and introducing loan-to-value restrictions, will go to the public for consultation this month.
| « Merger complete | RBNZ calls for input on macroprudential tools » |
Special Offers
Comments from our readers
On 1 March 2013 at 12:35 pm Dean Wright Mortgage Broker said:
If the governement wishies to slow down the use of credit and the value of the current market they should look at the amount of Foreign buyers purchasing residential properties and inflating the prices. The foreign buyers so not hold any NZ passports come to New Zealand buy a home leave it empty when we have New Zealanders of any nationally miss out and this takes away the supply in the market. With some properties going $200-$300k over GV you have to wonder how any New Zealander of any nationally can ever buy a home for their family On 1 March 2013 at 4:28 pm Amused said:
Well said Dean. Overseas purchasers are clearly driving up Auckland house prices. It’s not New Zealanders. Why is the Government blind to this fact when most people in Auckland are aware of this?
Kiwi first home buyers struggle now to scrape together the 5% deposit needed to get them into a first home in Auckland. If the Reserve Bank does actually end up imposing a higher deposit requirement on the banks when lending to borrowers in Auckland (as it has been threatening to do) it will not make one iota of difference in terms of helping housing there become more affordable for “New Zealanders”. It will actually do the complete opposite!
On 2 March 2013 at 3:52 pm traveller said:
isn't there a puzzle here? By general consent, overseas buyers have much more money than New Zealand buyers and, statistics would suggest they are not buying at the lower end of the market so some other factors are driving up the "affordable end". Sign In to add your comment
|
|
Printable version |
|
Email to a friend |
