No major bank is close to APRA'S 10 percent mortgage growth speed limit
Pete WargentDecember 17, 2020
APRA released its latest Monthly Banking Statistics for June 2017 yesterday, detailing information on the banking business of individual banks within the domestic market.
Further strong mortgage growth of +0.63 per cent was reported taking the total for outstanding housing loans to a fresh high of $1.57 trillion.
The figures officially reported were $1,107,754 million (+0.73 per cent) for owner-occupier mortgages and $552,270 million (+0.44 per cent) for investment mortgages outstanding.
Thus investment mortgages now officially account for 35.2 per cent of banking loan books, classification issues notwithstanding.
Investor loan books
Looking specifically at investor loans, it's clear that none of the major banks is close to the arbitrary 10 per cent 'speed limit' or annual growth cap imposed by the regulator.
As you can see, of the major lenders Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC) is ramping up its investment loan exposure at the present time.
Indeed, Westpac (WBC) is presently expanding both sectors of its mortgage book, and has the largest exposure to investment loans overall at $146.8 billion, although Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has a more substantial loan book in aggregate.
Although the majors have wound back growth in investment loans, some other lenders continue to exceed the 10 per cent growth cap comfortably.
Additionally certain lenders have loan books that are exposed to markets at risk of mortgage arrears, including regional Queensland.
PETE WARGENT is the co-founder of AllenWargent property buyers (London, Sydney) and a best-selling author and blogger.
His latest book is Four Green Houses and a Red Hotel.
Pete Wargent
Pete Wargent is the co-founder of BuyersBuyers.com.au, offering affordable homebuying assistance to all Australians, and a best-selling author and blogger.