Pragmatic and targeted approach to residential investor lending welcome

Master Builders welcomes the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) announcement of measures to address the growth in low deposit and interest only finance for residential property investors.

“APRA’s measures are a responsible approach to tackling the risk of interest only lending while supporting continuing sustainable growth in investor activity in the housing market,” Denita Wawn,” CEO of Master Builders Australia said.

“APRA’s approach is a pragmatic and targeted response to addressing risks in investor lending in Sydney and Melbourne without negatively affecting housing markets in other states and territories which are at other stages in their housing cycles,” she said.

“It’s the role of regulators to ensure the long term sustainability of the housing market, not the tax system. APRA’s announcement highlights why using the tax system to tackle the issue of investor activity in the housing market is an ill-advised and ineffective sledgehammer approach,” Denita Wawn said.

“This opens the way for the Government to focus on measures to increase supply in the May Budget, including incentive payments to state and local governments to remove the structural impediments to building more new homes,” Denita Wawn said.