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Brokers have nothing to fear from potentially tighter lending standards, says APRA chairman Wayne Byres.
‘Macroprudential tools’ or, more simply, restricting the amount banks can lend borrowers is “normal regulation and regulation responding to circumstances,” Mr Byres told an industry event on Monday.
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Mr Byres cites Australia’s last property boom in 2003/2004 when APRA took measures to cool the market by implementing changes to capital and mortgage insurance requirements.
“We did some other things designed to just temper the incentives and you shouldn’t think of this as some grand, new framework and completely new, but I always think much of it is APRA doing its job, which is as things start to get a bit frothy or more exuberant or whatever – the right phrase might be there is a gradual ‘turning up of the dial’ of supervising intensity and regulatory intensity.
“People love the term 'macroprudential' because it sounds like it is really important but there is not a lot that is new,” he said.
Much of the hype around overzealous lending centres on investors – now accounting for one in two loans written in Australia – which the RBA fears could result in a property ‘bubble’ as rates rise and markets cool.
However, one industry figure who believes investor lending has become the ‘new norm’ rather than disappearing at the first hint of a rate rise, is Firstmac’s managing director Kim Cannon.
Mr Cannon argues that previous generations had built their wealth in owner-occupied dwellings on the “quarter acre” but that was no longer the case.
“Are we seeing the future of this generation saying they will build their wealth through savings, through investments and through building wealth smarter, rather than pouring it all into the family house?” Mr Cannon said.
“To me, there is a culture change going on and this is being missed by everybody,” he argued.
Just as the global financial crisis changed the way banks did business and created an online culture among consumers, so too will the Australian property culture change, Mr Cannon said.
“Everybody is panicking about it and there is nothing really to panic about,” he said.
[Related: Century 21 says lending restrictions will backfire]
