Australian non-bank mortgage lenders, such as Resimac and Pepper, are looking to ramp up their New Zealand businesses to take advantage of the new Reserve Bank of New Zealand limit on low deposit loans by banks.But analysts say restrictions on funding, a lack of mortgage insurance and the sheer scale of the expected gap opened up by the restrictions mean it is unlikely non-banks will be able to substantially thwart the RBNZ's goal of slowing lending and cooling double-digit house price inflation.Resimac launched in New Zealand late last year and claimed naming rights on an office building in the Wellington CBD.  Resimac's general manager of mortgages in New Zealand, Adrienne Church, said demand from brokers for low deposit loans in recent weeks had been so strong that Resimac had been forced to ration loans to existing broker clients who also arrange higher deposit loans so it could maintain a balanced portfolio.Church said Resimac's growth would have to come from both low deposit borrowers, with loan-to-valuation ratios of above 80 per cent, and those with LVRs of under 80 per cent."We don't necessarily think it's a question of capacity, but rather a question of balance. We can't have a whole portfolio at 90 per cent LVR, so we will continue to focus on balancing this through lower LVR products," Church said.Since October 1, the RBNZ has limited the growth by banks of mortgages with an LVR of over 80 per cent to 10 per cent of new mortgage flows. It has estimated the limit could slow overall lending growth by one to three percentage points. If this had been applied a year ago, lending growth would have been around NZ$4 billion less than it has been.RBNZ figures show total non-bank home lending had fallen to NZ$1.8 billion by August, from $2.5 billion a year earlier and $7.7 billion in August 2007.  Almost all of New Zealand's finance companies collapsed between 2007 and 2010. Most were funded through debenture issues to the public, and provided second and third mortgages to property developers and property investors.Meanwhile, bank mortgage lending rose to NZ$183.1 billion in August, from $172.5 billion a year ago and NZ$140.4 billion in August 2007."I don't think non-bank lenders can fill the gap," said Church.One limiting factor is a lack of mortgage insurance after the late 2012 withdrawal from the New Zealand market by QBE's LMI. This forced Resimac to reduce its maximum LVR to 90 per cent, from 95 per cent. New Zealand's banks self-insure their high LVR lending.KPMG's head of financial services, John Kensington, agreed that the size of the gap left by the inability of the banks to lend in an unlimited way would be too large for non-banks to fill. "That would be quite a big ask. I don't think there's anyone set up to do it," he said.Kensington said any new player also faced the risk of a shift in the regulatory landscape before they had settled into the market, given the RBNZ has described the