Lenders heed APRA's warning

Lenders appear to have paid heed to calls from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority to keep lending to residential property investors at manageable levels.

According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics housing finance figures, the value of new residential investor lending fell 3.4 per cent in February, compared with the previous month (in seasonally adjusted terms).

And according to the latest Reserve Bank lending data, growth in investor housing balances slipped back from 0.9 per cent in January to 0.8 per cent in February.

In December APRA wrote to authorised deposit-taking institutions, saying that prudential risks in the housing finance market appeared to be increasing and that it would increase its "level of supervisory intensity."

APRA said: "Fast or accelerating credit growth can be a key indicator of a build-up in risk. Given the currently very strong growth in investor lending, supervisors will be particularly alert to plans for rapid growth in this part of the portfolio."

The ABS figures show that the value of new owner-occupied housing finance rose 0.5 per cent in February, compared with the previous month.

The value of all new dwelling finance was down one per cent, month-on-month, to A$30.4 billion.

The number of new owner-occupied housing loans rose 1.2 per cent in February.

The average housing loan in February was $337,200 - down from $348,300 in January.