ANZ releases mortgage figures

A major bank has released figures for the quarter to 31 December 2018 showing its growth in the home loan space.

ANZ’s Australian home loan portfolio grew 1% with the Owner Occupier portfolio up 3.5% ($6.1billion) and the Investor portfolio down 3.8% ($3.2 billion). In the 12 months to the end of January 2019, ANZ’s home loan portfolio grew 0.4%.

According to the bank, ANZ’s home lending growth trends are attributable to lower system growth, ANZ’s preference for Owner Occupier/Principal and Interest lending which drives faster amortisation, together with policy and process changes implemented in the second half of calendar year 2018.

ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott said, “Consumer sentiment has remained generally subdued with uncertainty around regulation and house prices impacting confidence.

“While we are maintaining our focus on the Owner Occupier segment, we acknowledge we may have been overly conservative in our implementation of some policy and process changes. We are also taking steps to prudently increase volumes in the investor space.”

Switching volumes for those moving from Interest Only to Principal and Interest during the quarter was $6 billion, of which $4 billion was contractual.