Mortgage lending make-up revealed

Of the $5 billion taken out in mortgages last month, property purchases accounted for $3.2 billion, changes in loan provider for $1 billion, top-ups for $0.6 billion and the remainder was for other purposes including bridging finance.

Total borrowing was down $400 million compared with July last year and is only a month shy of two years of declining mortgage lending. 

The value of purchases was down 5% in the year to July, and top-ups were down by 13%, but bank switches were up by 1% as borrowers chase the best deals, which often include cash-backs. Banks are also competitive, wanting to retain existing customers and attract new business.

The average size of a new loan last month was $362,200. For property purchases the average loan was $546,300, falling 7.1% from $587,900 in July last year. For changes in loan provider the average loan size was $600,500 and for top ups it was $104,900. 

Last year the RBNZ did an analysis on the quality of the purpose data. Following this it made minor changes to the definitions of the top-up and other categories. Respondents to the survey have also implemented changes, resulting in more consistent reporting across the industry, the central bank says.

There were 13,795 new mortgages last month, with 40% of borrowers taking out tops ups, while 42.7% took out loans for property purchases and 12.6% of borrowers changed loan providers.

The average share of the value of new mortgages for buying property was 63.3% between January 2017 and last month and last month alone, 64.3% of new mortgages were for property purchases.

For changes in loan providers, the average share was 16% between January 2017 and July this year. Last month the share was 20.9%. This share has been elevated above the long-run average since June 2022. In March there was a spike in the share of the value of new mortgages due to changes in loan providers, at 26.1%.

New mortgages for top-ups of existing lending came to 11.6% last month. The share of new lending for top ups has dropped over time. The lowest share since the series began in January 2017 was at 10.7% in June.

The value of top ups in the 12 months ended July  was $7.7 billion. In comparison, in the 12 months ended July 2021, top ups had a value of $13.6 billion.

Borrowers with LVRs greater than 80% sat at 11.4% last month and 96.7% of lending in that range was for property purchases.