Lending stock bounds ahead

The latest RBNZ’s new sector lending figures show housing lending stock increased by $1.3 billion or 0.4% during the month – the largest monthly increase since April 2022.

A total of $6.9b was lent on new mortgages in May, the highest monthly total since March 2022.

Bank and non-bank lenders’ mortgages rose to a total of $360.603b outstanding, indicating the annual growth rate rose from 3.1% at the end of April to 3.3% at the end of May – the biggest  annual rise since March last year. 

Separating the non-bank lenders from the banks, shows non-bank lenders outstanding mortgage stock took a dip in May to $5.9b from $6b in April.

Banks fared much better and their outstanding mortgage stock rose $1.3b to total $354.6b – the biggest monthly increase since January 2022.

Non-performing loans only increased slightly in May to $1.91b from $1.901 in April.  Over the past year non-performing housing loans rose by $675 million.

Big rise in bank switches

Other RBNZ figures reveal the number of mortgage holders switching banks is rocketing ahead, presumably to get better deals, as job losses and the cost of living.  It is near the highest level since data collection started in 2017.

The number of new mortgages for a change in loan provider rose by 31% in May compared to the year previously. Those figures rose by 34% from April and involved $1.655b in loans. The average loan size was $636,500.

First home buyers’ share of new mortgages increased to 21.4%, up from 21.3% in April, but it is an annual drop from 24.3% in May last year.

Investors are still staring down the barrel of a market that doesn’t stack up. Their share of new mortgages dropped to 18.9%, down from 20.1% in April. However, this is an increase on May last year, when their share was 16.9%.

Moving owner-occupiers continue to dominate the market with their share of new mortgages rising to 58.3%, up from 57.3% in April. Their share in May last year reached 57.4%.

There were 18,348 mortgages written in May, up 16.7% from 15.719 in April. In comparison to May last year this was a rise of 12.9%.

The average new loan value increased to $376,553, up marginally from $376, 551 in April, but up 4.5% on a year ago when borrowers took out an average loan of $360,376.