AMP adds to “unacceptable” Chinese property buyer woes

Advertisement

From Australian Broker:

AMP Bank has classified non-resident borrowers as an “unacceptable borrower type” amongst a myriad of other tougher lending rules regarding foreign income lending.

In the note sent to mortgage brokers last week, AMP said non-resident borrowers will now be deemed an unacceptable borrower type, unless a spouse or defacto is a citizen or permanent resident of Australia or New Zealand and a borrower of the loan.

In addition, the non-major has also cracked down on foreign lending income from nine currencies, in particular the Chinese Yuan.

The changes, applicable to any applications on or after Monday 30 May 2016, see only 50% of income derived from the Chinese Yuan (salary, investment and rental) as acceptable.

Where the Chinese Yuan is used for serviceability, the maximum LVR has also been reduced to 50%.

Eight other foreign currencies have also been subject to tightened conditions, albeit to a lesser extent than the Chinese Yuan.

Only 80% of the further eight currencies – Canadian Dollar, EURO, British Pound, Hong Kong Dollar, Japanese Yen, New Zealand Dollar, Singapore Dollar and U.S. Dollar – will be deemed acceptable. In addition, these currencies will also now have a reduced maximum LVR of 70%.

In the note sent to mortgage brokers, AMP said the restrictions came “due to recent changes in the market in relation to non-resident and foreign income lending”.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.