Macquarie Bank doubles loans to investors in first nine months of 2012: APRA figures

Macquarie Bank, the new mortgage funding partner of Mark Bouris’s Yellow Brick Road franchise business, has more than doubled its investor loan book over the first nine months of the year, Property Observer analysis of APRA banking figures shows.

Macquarie Bank’s investor loan book has soared from $846 million at the end of 2011 to almost $2 billion – nine month growth of 119%.

In June Property Observer reported that Macquarie’s investor home loan book was up 33% on the first four months of the year, with a spokesperson saying the bank had been ramping up its lending since returning to the mortgage market in 2010.

Macquarie Bank, the financial services arm of Macquarie Group, is now competing strongly with the major banks for new investor loans, with NAB (the smallest of the major banks in terms of new investor mortgage lending) originating $1.26 billion in new investor loans over the first nine months of the year, compared with Macquarie Bank’s $1.04 billion.

Macquarie is currently offering a one-year discount of 100 basis points on all its variable rate home loans, with a competitive rate of 5.65%.

It also offers a self-managed super fund loan tailored at property investors who are investing by borrowing against their DIY super funds at a rate of 6.65%.

The figures also show strong growth among the customer-owned mutual institutions with the ME Bank’s investor loan book up 33% over the first nine months of the year to $1.6 billion and Heritage Bank growing its investor loan by 14% to $1.4 billion.

In absolute terms, Westpac is the bank of choice for property investors, originating more than $6 billion in new loans over the first nine months of the year, well ahead of the Commonwealth Bank/Bankwest with $4.4 billion in new mortgages.

Investor lending for the first nine months of 2012 (Jan - Sept)

Source: APRA