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ISCOVER
Staff Reporter
Australia’s lenders have started to loosen their home loan lending belt, according to new research.
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Data from RateCity found the number of lenders offering home loans with a maximum LVR of 97 per cent has doubled since January 2011, with these loans now accounting for 5 per cent of all home loans in RateCity’s database.
RateCity’s chief executive Damian Smith said LVRs are a good indication that lenders are keen to kick-start growth in the sluggish home loan market, after statistics showed that the number of home loans taken out in March dropped by 1.5 per cent compared to February.
“The RateCity database shows that the proportion of home loans with a maximum LVR of 95 per cent and above make up 62 per cent of all home loans. This is 8 percentage points higher than in January 2011,” he said.
“We haven’t seen this level of money offered to mortgage borrowers since the start of 2009. Lenders are trying to kick-start growth in the mortgage market, and more generous LVRs and lending criteria are the key tool they use.”
