Home-buyers take break, new mortgages down

Residential mortgage borrowing dipped in December compared to the previous year, Reserve Bank figures show. Photo/File image.

Home-buyers took a breather at the end of last year with new residential mortgage lending dipping down.

Reserve Bank December figures show $5.855 billion in new lending was done during the month - down from $6.349b in November and the $6b undertaken in December 2015.

Owner occupiers, including first home buyers, accounted for 72 per cent of the borrowing compared to 37 per cent for investors.

Loan Market mortgage broker Karen Tatterson said borrower activity tpypically slowed in December as people got tied up with getting through Christmas and the holiday period.

But last December had been slower than the previous year end, she said.

"We didn't see the same sort of rush - people trying to get into the right school zone."

Tatterson said a lot of properties were passed in at auction and some banks had told their customers not to bid at auctions but to wait until afterwards to negotiate a sales price.

She also blamed the slow start to Summer.

"We didn't have a very good start to Summer and that affects people too.

"It's just a been a myriad of different things."

The data also showed a reduction in the percentage of lending to those with a deposit of less than 20 per cent - those perceived to be at the riskier end.

Just 5.6 per cent of the lending in December was done to borrowers with a loan to value ratio over 80 per cent - the lowest percentage since the central bank began monitoring the data in July 2015.

The drop is likely to have been influenced by increased lending restrictions which came into force in October.

Almost all investors must now have a deposit of 40 per cent while there is a cap of 10 per cent for owner-occupier borrowing with a deposit of less than 20 per cent throughout the country.

Investors borrowing has fluctuated since the change.

Immediately after the change investor borrowing fell to $1.446b but recovered in November to $1.737b.

In December it was back down to $1.575b.

Christina Leung, an economist with the NZIER, said strong lending growth suggested the restrictions had had little effect on the housing market.

"Lending on housing remains strong with annual growth running at over 9 per cent, suggesting the impact of the recent LVR [loan to value ratio] restrictions late last year has had only a muted effect on the housing market."