Macquarie increases loans to property investors 33% since January: APRA figures
The Macquarie Group has made a big push into the property investor space in 2012, growing its investment mortgages book by 33% during the first four months of the year, according to Property Observer analysis of APRA figures.
The investment bank has written $290 million worth of investment housing loans since January 1 – just behind regional players Bendigo Bank ($309 million), Bank of Queensland ($310 million) and Suncorp ($384 million).
A spokesperson for Macquarie told Property Observer the increase in its investment housing lending was likely due "to the business continuing to ramp up since returning to the [mortgage] market in 2010.
“We have been continuously broadening our distribution and working on various product developments like the SMSF property loan.
“Our book has also recently returned to growth following a period of run-off – the run-off was of course driven by our time out of new mortgage origination between 2008 and 2010,” she says.
Macquarie launched its SMSF Property Loan on May 30 aimed at giving SMSFs direct exposure to residential investment property assets.
In addition the bank also offers three tailored investment loans, including a 100% investment loan requiring no upfront capital.
Top 15 property investor lenders since start of the year ($ millions)
Bank | 31-12-11 | 30-04-12 | New lending |
Westpac | $118,380 | $120,654 | $2,274 |
ANZ | $44,549 | $46,243 | $1,694 |
Commonwealth Bank | $85,928 | $87,328 | $1,399 |
NAB | $52,134 | $52,616 | $482 |
Suncorp | $8,179 | $8,563 | $384 |
Bank of Queensland | $9,672 | $9,982 | $310 |
Bendigo and Adelaide | $8,553 | $8,863 | $309 |
Macquarie Bank | $876 | $1,166 | $290 |
Citigroup Pty | $2,401 | $2,547 | $146 |
BankWest | $9,322 | $9,466 | $144 |
Members Equity Bank | $1,168 | $1,280 | $112 |
ING Bank | $9,469 | $9,572 | $103 |
AMP Bank | $2,014 | $2,094 | $80 |
Heritage Bank | $1,187 | $1,238 | $52 |
HSBC Bank Australia | $3,843 | $3,894 | $51 |
Source: APRA
Macquarie CEO Nicholas Moore revealed at a February operational briefing that the bank had launched an enhanced mortgages offering to new Australian clients.
The investment bank also has an equity stake and helped launch mortgage aggregator Vow Financial, which has grown to a network of 700 mortgage brokers – a channel for it to distribute its investment loans and other products.
The APRA figures show that Members Equity Bank has also ramped up its investment mortgage lending since January, lending $112 million to property investors translating into 9% growth for its $1.3 billion investment loan book.
In contrast to Macquarie and ME Bank’s pitch to the investor market, NAB has pulled back from this market, growing its investor mortgage book by less than 1% since the start of the year – adding just $482 million to its $53 billion investment loan book.
Westpac has by far the biggest investment loan book of all lenders at $121 billion and also wrote the highest volume of investment loans ($2.3 billion) over the first fourth months of the year.
ANZ has also been a strong player in the investment space, registering the strongest growth of the Big Four over the fourth months of just under 4%. The bank has written $1.7 billion worth of investment loans since the start of the year.