{"id":568414,"date":"2026-08-14T03:08:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T03:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/568414\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T03:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T03:08:19","slug":"rbnz-says-housing-risks-currently-contained-leaves-lvr-settings-unchanged-after-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/568414\/","title":{"rendered":"RBNZ says housing risks &#8216;currently contained,&#8217; leaves LVR settings unchanged after review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Reserve Bank (RBNZ) says it&#8217;s maintaining banks&#8217; low equity home lending limits at current levels, by retaining loan-to-value-ratio (LVR) restrictions at current settings.<\/p>\n<p>This follows the annual review of macroprudential policy by the RBNZ&#8217;s\u00a0Financial Policy Committee (FPC).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHousing risks are currently contained. Nationally, house prices have remained broadly flat in recent years, while mortgage lending growth has been modest and the share of higher-risk lending remains manageable,\u201d Angus McGregor, RBNZ\u00a0Assistant Governor for Financial Stability, said. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>LVR restrictions limit the volume of low equity mortgage lending banks can do. The current LVR restrictions, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/banking\/135687\/banks-will-be-allowed-write-more-low-deposit-mortgages-property-investors-and-home\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">in place since December last year<\/a>, are:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For owner occupiers, allowing up to 25% of new lending to have an LVR above 80%.\u00a0<br \/>\n\tFor investors, allowing up to 10% of new lending to have an LVR above 70%.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDebt-to-income (DTI) restrictions also remain in place. These complement LVR restrictions and are an important guardrail against the build-up of high-risk lending, particularly during periods of low interest rates and strong housing demand,\u201d said McGregor. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>DTI restrictions\u00a0limit the amount of debt borrowers can take on relative to their income. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rbnz.govt.nz\/education\/explainers\/dti?utm_source=Reserve+Bank+of+New+Zealand&amp;utm_campaign=1e5b0cb904-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_02_20_12_14_COPY_01&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_c0c0e9bb78-31622faeee-25896417\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Current\u00a0DTI settings <\/a>allow banks to lend up to:<\/p>\n<p>20% of owner-occupier lending to borrowers with a DTI ratio greater than 6<br \/>\n\t20% of investor loans to investors with a DTI ratio greater than 7.<\/p>\n<p>McGregor said the RBNZ will continue monitoring developments in house prices, mortgage lending, and broader financial stability risks. The next macroprudential settings review is planned in about 12 months time, but McGregor said it could be brought forward if conditions warrant.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We review settings annually to ensure they remain appropriate given housing market conditions and financial stability risks. This forms part of the macroprudential policy framework published earlier this year,&#8221;\u00a0 McGregor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The FPC considered a range of information, including house price developments, the risk profile of recent mortgage lending, financial strain amongst existing borrowers, and the resilience of the banking system, the RBNZ says.<\/p>\n<p>The FPC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interest.co.nz\/banking\/136781\/reserve-bank-financial-policy-committee-make-financial-stability-decisions-consensus\" rel=\" noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">was established<\/a> to make key financial stability policy decisions, including setting prudential requirements for financial institutions regulated by the RBNZ, and making macro-prudential policy decisions such as DTI ratio and LVR settings for bank lending.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Reserve Bank (RBNZ) says it&#8217;s maintaining banks&#8217; low equity home lending limits at current levels, by retaining&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-568414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}