Westpac accelerates home lending and adviser-originated loans
Westpac New Zealand accelerated its home loan lending in the six months ended March, adding $2.1 billion in new lending.
Tuesday, May 5th 2026, 12:16PM
by Jenny Ruth
That compares with the $1.72 billion it lent in the six months ended September and the $1.51 billion Westpac lent in the previous first half, according to the bank’s disclosure statements.
While the loan-to-valuation table showed on balance-sheet mortgages at $72.8 billion, its Australian parent’s slides showed total mortgages at $73.3 billion, up from $71.3 billion at Sept 30 last year.
Mortgage advisers are originating more of its mortgages because their loans totalled 58% of Westpac’s mortgage book at March 31, up from 56.7% at Sept 30 last year and from 53.8% at Sept 30, 2024.
Westpac doesn’t provide information on the flow of lending, only the resultant book details.
The bank’s statutory net profit for the six months ended March 31 fell 8.8% to $515 million with charges against profit for bad debts rising to $37 million from $33 million in the same six months a year earlier.
Net interest income fell 2.8% to $1.39 billion but net interest income rose three basis points to 2.29% while operating expenses rose 3.4% to $755 million.
Westpac chief executive Catherine McGrath said total lending rose 6% while deposits were up 3% compared with the previous first half.
“We’ve grown faster than the market in home and small-to-medium business lending as we compete hard to help more customers into their own homes, grow their businesses and support New Zealand’s economic recovery,” McGrath said.
While the economy had been slowly gathering momentum, the war against Iran, which began on Feb 28, “is set to push GDP growth backwards in the near term,” she said.
Westpac’s economist are predicting GDP will have shrunk by 0.4% in the June quarter – that data won’t be available until mid-September.
The economy should pick up again when the conflict has been resolved and oil prices will then gradually ease, McGrath said.
Westpac said it is investing in making customers’ banking experiences faster and easier and that its processing of home lending applications through its own home loan experts and online channel is within a day on average.
It said the flat housing market and relatively low interest rates “have created better opportunities to get on the housing ladder. Westpac financed 3,121 first-home purchases in the last six months.”
Westpac’s stressed lending and housing delinquency rates are lower than a year ago, McGrath said.
“Many businesses have got themselves more ‘match fit’ as they’ve had to be more nimble and flexible to respond to tariff shocks and other issues,” McGrath said.
However, the parent’s slides showed mortgages that were 90-days in delinquency rose from 0.46% to 0.5% while those 30-days or more rose from 0.88% to 0.95%.
The parent’s slides showed customers paying interest only fell to 14.5% of the book from 14.7%.
| « Advisers increased origination of BNZ home loans | Non-bank lending balloons » |
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