Investor housing loan arrears rates lower than owner-occupier loans

In a reversal of the usual trend, investor housing loans had a better arrears performance than owner-occupier loans last year, according to Fitch Ratings.

Fitch issued a structured finance report yesterday, analysing the performance of loans in residential mortgage-backed securities portfolios.

The percentage of investor loans that were in arrears by 90 days or more last year was 0.8 times the percentage of owner-occupied loans in arrears.

Fitch said its view remained that investor loans carried additional risk, which was borne out by long-term data.

Over the ten years to the end of last year the arrears rate on investor loans was 1.15 times the arrears rate on owner-occupier loans.

Fitch said investor loans were enjoying the best possible conditions, with low interest rates, high prices (which give investors the ability to dispose of property easily) and high net rental yields.

Its view is still that "there is additional risk in investment loans and performance is substantially affected by movements in property prices."