The return of the high LVR mortgage

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From News.com.au:

MULTIPLE lenders have eased requirements on borrowers’ deposit sizes making it easier to buy a home…

New data from comparison website Finder.com.au shows lenders including Homeloans, HSBC, loans.com.au, Macquarie Bank, RAMS and Westpac have moved their LVRs on some mortgage products, relaxing the size of the deposit needed to secure a loan…

Finder.com.au spokeswoman Michelle Hutchison said borrowers who had small deposits and were taking out a loan at a time when interest rates were at record lows was a “recipe for disaster”…

According to the financial comparison site, almost half of all home loans on their database had a maximum LVR of 95 per cent or higher.

This rise in high LVR lending of course comes at a time when investor mortgage lending has surged to unprecedented heights, whereby nearly one in two new mortgages are going to investors (see next chart).

ScreenHunter_6083 Feb. 16 09.43
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Regulators have been debating whether to implement macro-prudential controls on high risk mortgage lending for nearly two years now. Seriously, how much more evidence do they need that housing speculation is out of control?

Get off your arse APRA, do your job, and curb this fiasco before it takes the economy down.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.