Waning buyers
Just a brief insight from CoreLogic into the different nature of property market restrictions.
Melbourne, where attending an open home is nigh on impossible, is seeing materially fewer properties selling via Zoom auction.
Buying a property sight unseen isn't for the faint of heart.
Sydney, on the other hand, remains solid.
Source: CoreLogic
Regulator speaks
APRA's Wayne Byres spoke at a parliamentary committee on economics at the back end of last week, and made a few observations broadly reflecting the lumpy nature of the property market.
As previously noted, offset and cash balances have ballooned - significantly bolstering household balance sheets, while repayments have fallen - interest-only lending is essentially nowhere, and household debt to income ratios have declined quite a bit from their previous highs due to the recent stimulus.
Indeed, the stock of interest-only loans saw another huge decline in the June 2021 quarter, meaning that under 13 per cent of the stock of outstanding housing credit is now on interest-only term, which is by far the lowest level on record.
IO loans were seen to be a systemic risk at 39 per cent of the outstanding housing loan stock, but can hardly be so now.
There was a bit of an uptick in lower deposit lending, but this is now easing back as the first homebuyers boost washes through.
One area which Byres hinted might get a look at is higher debt-to-income lending, but overall prudential lending standards have remained very sound.
Low-doc lending is essentially no more, and although it's possible to find a SMSF mortgage they're written at higher rates.
Marco risks in the housing market? There are some: overly enthusiastic regional buyers getting carried away with the 'race for space' theme, for example, which may reverse a little next year.
And some landlords in Melbourne CBD may need to take a mortgage holiday as the city heads towards a world record 250 days in lockdown.
But overall most borrowers will be in good nick once the economy reopens.
