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Smart brokers and investors could ironically benefit from plans to make investor loans more expensive.
The consensus among senior banking figures at this week's Australian Securitisation Forum conference was that APRA would target the booming Sydney and Melbourne investor markets through higher risk weightings for investor loans, which in turn would increase their cost.
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Inovayt mortgage advisor Jason Pogorelec, who derives about 75 per cent of his volumes from investors, said his Melbourne firm would probably benefit from such a change.
"I think we'd find investors becoming a lot more educated and a lot more particular about what they enter into," he told The Adviser.
"It would help the industry become more professional at the same time by keeping operators that operate the right way in business."
My Address Finance founder George Samios, who relies on investors for about half his volumes, said that his Brisbane firm was also likely to benefit from new lending rules.
Mr Samios said the use of macroprudential tools would be nothing more than a "short-term fix" – whereas his business strategy is to educate clients to make long-term financial decisions.
He said his clients would be comfortable to pay more in the short term to reap the long-term rewards of property investment.
He also said an increase in the cost of investor loans would make the market less cluttered, which in turn would open up more opportunities for long-term investors.
However, another Brisbane broker, Mortgage Choice Indooroopilly principal Russell Passfield, said he opposed moves to intervene in the investor market.
Mr Passfield told The Adviser that new lending rules would reduce investor volumes at many brokerages, including his own.
"I don't think the investor market needs cooling across the board. Some markets are hot – Sydney has been crazy, but it doesn't mean Brisbane or Gladstone or Darwin or lots of other places are hot," he said.
The Reserve Bank of Australia announced last month that new lending rules were highly likely to be introduced by the end of the year.
That prompted several industry figures to voice concern about "micromanagement" and "artificial intervention".
Mortgage Choice chief executive Michael Russell and Finsure managing director John Kolenda said last week that new lending rules would do more harm than good.
[Related: Century 21 says lending restrictions will backfire]
