ANZ New Zealand has reported a one per cent rise in cash profit between the first and second halves of the financial year as strong lending growth and flat costs were enough to offset a rise in bad debt charges from very low levels.New Zealand's largest bank grew its lending 8.5 per cent in the year to the end of September to NZ$104.8 billion as it lifted its market share in mortgage lending and commercial lending.ANZ NZ reported a cash profit for the six months to September 30 of NZ$846 million, up from NZ$841 million in the first half of the year as its net interest margin fell one basis point to 2.48 per cent and costs were flat at NZ$739 million.The bank's provisions for bad debts rose to NZ$45 million in the second half from NZ$31 million in the first half as provisions normalized from the previous year. There were write-backs of NZ$9 million in the previous year as New Zealand's economy grew at a rate of more than three per cent and interest rates fell, reducing stress for borrowers.Gross impaired assets continued to fall as the economy grew. The percentage of impaired assets to total loans fell to 36 basis points by September 30 from 67 basis points a year earlier, having fallen from 192 points in September 2011.The one area of lending where ANZ's market share fell in New Zealand was dairy lending, where ANZ's dairy loans have fallen from NZ$14 billion in September 2011 to NZ$12 billion by the end of September 2015 because of a deliberate policy launched in 2012 of reducing ANZ's over-exposure to dairying, which was a legacy of owning the rural-heavy National Bank.ANZ's market share in agriculture lending fell to 31.6 per cent in 2015 from 34.5 per cent in 2012. ANZ said it was still diversifying its farm lending away from dairying to sheep and beef and horticulture.However, ANZ continued its drive into mortgage lending in the biggest and fastest-growing market of Auckland, increasing its market share to 31.6 per cent from 31.0 per cent over the year to September by growing mortgage lending 8.0 per cent over the year, which was faster than the banking system's growth of 6.2 per cent.  ANZ's share of new home loans in Auckland rose to 33 per cent from 30 per cent over the year, taking it further ahead of Commonwealth Bank of Australia's ASB on 24 per cent.ANZ NZ Chief Executive David Hisco said the bank was monitoring the impact of tougher Reserve Bank Loan to Value Ratio rules for Auckland property investors that are due to begin next week."It might change the dynamics a bit. We'll have to wait and see, but the business flows are pretty good for us at the moment," Hisco told Banking Day in an interview."For investors it will mean they have to have a bigger deposit and that's a good thing in terms of market stability, and it also might put a few people off, and that