The Reserve Bank of New Zealand was keen to emphasise that the decision to relax some of the so-called "speed limits" that had been applied to the housing market was no "green light" for bankers and home buyers to jump back into the market in expectation of another boom. Neither was it an attempt to prop up the cooling market or reassure home buyers it was a good time to invest, RBNZ acting Governor told the Finance and Expenditure select committee after yesterday's release of the Financial Stability Report.The Bank had used the release of the report to announce changes to the loan to value restrictions that have applied since 2013, brought in to address the financial stability risks arising from rapid house price inflation and the consequent rise in household debt. Asked by new Labour MP Deborah Russell what signal he was sending to investors about the housing market, he said: "We certainly don't want to give the signal that it is some sort of green light that the housing market is back on.""The signal is more that our expectation is that the housing market is going to remain flat and is not about to resurge again, but there is a little bit more room for high LVR loans, and a lot of that would be taken by first home buyers," he said."It is more a toe in the water signal and comment that this is not major event that is really going to impact the market. "Announcing the decision to relax the LVRs, Spencer said the policies that have been "substantially reducing" the share of high-LVR loans have "helped improve banking system resilience...", and he also expected the policies of the new Labour-led coalition Government to further dampen down the cooling housing market."Over the past six months, pressures in the housing market have continued to moderate due to the tightening of LVR restrictions in October 2016, a more general firming of bank lending standards and an increase in mortgage interest rates in early 2017.  "Housing market policies announced by the Government are also expected to have a dampening effect on the housing market." There will be a "modest" easing of LVR restrictions from 1 January 2018: No more than 15 per cent (currently ten per cent) of each bank's new mortgage lending to owner occupiers can be at LVRs of more than 80 per cent. No more than five percent of each bank's new mortgage lending to residential property investors can be at LVRs of more than 65 per cent (currently 60 per cent).Asked by former Finance Minister Steven Joyce if the Reserve Bank's continued restrictions and the new Government's actions would cause a downward correction in the housing market, Spencer said he thought the various measures would only have a small impact."We don't own or control the housing market. We have an impact at the margin," Spencer said."In terms of a risk of a downward correction, we think that is a low probability because of the