Westpac tightens on interest only mortgages again

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From the AFR:

Westpac is toughening lending conditions on investment property loans, the third change to its mortgage products in three months because of growing regulatory pressure to clamp-down on interest-only products.

…Westpac is reducing the maximum allowable interest-only term for investment property loans to 10 years. The interest-only term could previously be extended to 15 years, according to brokers.

In addition, the 12-year fixed rate investment property loan and its low documentation equivalent will no longer be available. The changes also apply to all special borrower packages.

…Christopher Foster Ramsay, principal of Foster Ramsay Finance, said during the past six weeks some lenders had “stopped aggressively going for market share” by trimming margin discounts and tightening terms and conditions.

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.