Carve out of new builds not a back-down: Wheeler

“I wouldn’t call it a back down,” RBNZ governor Graeme Wheeler said yesterday.

He says when the bank established its lending restrictions it “wanted to try and keep (them) as simple as possible.”

Part of the reason for this was to avoid any distortions and unintended effects.

Overall there are $4.5 billion of home loans a month and high LVR constructions loans only make up $45 million of the total.

When the bank was consulting on its restrictions it didn’t get any feedbank from banks or builders that not exempting new builds was a problem.

However in the past month builders have been very vocal saying the restrictions were causing a loss of business.

Wheeler said it was sensible for the Reserve Bank to look at the issue again, particularly if it helped address supply side issues in the housing market. Hence the change in policy.

While the bank has made one change to its lending restrictions it is not looking at other changes.

Wheeler said the bank had looked at regional LVRs at the start but decided against them as they wanted a simple system.

Regional restrictions could created “distortions and spill overs at the waters edge”, he said.

Also the bank had the view that household price inflation would pick up in other regions outside of Auckland and Christchurch.

“We thought that household price inflation would pick up in the regions,” he said.

Comments from our readers

On 13 December 2013 at 12:25 pm Amused said:

"Wheeler said the bank had looked at regional LVRs at the start but decided against them as they wanted a simple system. Regional restrictions could created “distortions and spill overs at the waters edge”, he said."

Excuse me? The banks themselves have had no difficulty applying and administering LVR restrictions on certain geographic areas of New Zealand over the years. This just sounds like a waffling excuse NOT to limit lending restrictions to Auckland - not that the policy will make a blind bit of difference to the people who are inflating Auckland house prices anyway - they don't even need a mortgage!

Can I suggest that Mr Wheeler and his team at the Reserve Bank sit down with their colleagues in Treasury ASAP and listen to what they are now recommending to the Government themselves i.e. restrict non resident purchasers from been able to buy residential housing in NZ - especially in Auckland!

On 13 December 2013 at 1:22 pm Craig Pope said:

I agree, how hard can it be to have geographical LVR restrictions? You just tell the banks the guidelines and let them implement it. As the above writer mentioned banks have been able to apply different LVR criteria to different geographical areas for ages.

On 13 December 2013 at 3:45 pm w k said:

From all the feedback from advisers, looks like whoever is responsible, keep putting the wrong people with no experience whatsoever to the field in which they are put in charge.

Just wondering, is this an old boys' club? Hard to believe no experience advisers have ever applied for any position in those organisations.

Carve out of new builds not a back-down: Wheeler

The Reserve Bank says its decision this week to exempt new homes from its lending restrictions wasn’t a back down.

Friday, December 13th 2013, 11:07AM 3 Comments

Comments from our readers

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