The earlier headlines from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Financial Stability Review – housing unbalanced, discussing steps.

Bloomberg have an article up now, with a little more detail and discussion: Australian Central Bank Says Housing Unbalanced, Discussing Steps With Regulators

Bolding mine:

  • RBA said investors are starting to distort the nation’s housing market
  • Is discussing possible measures with other regulators to strengthen lending practices
  • “The composition of housing and mortgage markets is becoming unbalanced, with new lending to investors being out of proportion to rental housing’s share of the housing stock” the Reserve Bank of Australia said in its semiannual financial stability review in Sydney
  • It is in talks with regulators including Treasury on “additional steps that might be taken to reinforce sound lending practices, particularly for lending to investors,” the release showed. No measures were specified.
  • “This is an issue of growing concern for the Reserve Bank and reinforces the notion that rate cuts are off the table,” said Sydney-based Michael Blythe, chief economist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation’s biggest lender. “It’s a step towards the macro-prudential side which we haven’t really seen before.”

More at the Bloomberg link.