Lending nears $5b as households pay down mortgages

It was an increase of 7.2% on the amount lent in October last year.

Loans to borrowers with less than 20% equity made up 8.5% of the lending, or 7.1% after exempt loans were excluded.

First-home buyers were responsible for 9.5% of the new lending, down from 10% in September. A quarter of those borrowers had less than 20% deposit.

Investors took out almost 30% of the new loans. Only 4% of landlords borrowing had LVRs above 80%.

But those taking out new loans may have their sights on paying them off more quickly than the bank requires them to.

Statistics NZ's latest Household Economic Survey (Income) shows the  average weekly spending on housing costs rose 11.1% over the two years to the middle of this year, to $284.

“The increase in housing costs was largely due to higher mortgage and rent payments, as well as an increase in property rates," labour market and household manager Diane Ramsay said.

“A really interesting shift we’ve seen is that a bigger proportion of mortgage spending is going on repaying the principal than on covering the interest payments.”

The average weekly mortgage payment was up from $357 in the year ended June 2012 to $389 in 2014. Average weekly rent payments rose from $273 to $290.

The changes in weekly housing-cost spending and annual household income resulted in an increase in the housing-costs-to-income ratio, which was 16.3% for the year ended June 30.

This means that, on average, 16.3% of household income was spent on housing costs such as mortgages, rent, rates, and building-related insurance.