How investors end up in ‘mortgage prison’

For his part, Mr White said that he hopes the 50 point raise on the floor rate is enough to have an effect on rapidly rising prices, and APRA will not feel there’s a need for further intervention. 

In his estimation, it will likely take six to 12 months of feedback from property prices before the regulator indicates if further regulatory levers are likely to be pulled.

But he voiced his concern that even the current changes could have some negative flow-on effects for owners and investors across the country.

“The thing we’ve got to watch with APRA is that this is a broad-brush approach to servicing a loan,” Mr White said. “There are impacts, and they will affect investors who are doing developments more so, which could be small development projects for the first home buyer market, who all of a sudden may not meet the new serviceability regime,” he said by way of example.

Purchasers who have set their sights on buying into these new buildings could also get stung.

“People buying off the plan, when the reassessment’s done prior to settlement, all of a sudden may not be able to afford [the home],” he explained.

Mr White is urging politicians and regulators to keep a close eye on how the changes, which came into effect this month, are playing out in real-life situations.

“We understand and don’t necessarily disagree with a part of this move,” Mr White said, but added that in this instance, history holds an important lesson. “We don’t want to see what happened when APRA moved floor rates back in the day, which had quite a disastrous effect.” 

One of those effects, he said, amounted to borrowers essentially becoming “mortgage prisoners” in their home loans. 

This occurs when rates move around, and property owners seek to refinance in order to get a better deal, only to discover, “you can’t move your loan because you don’t meet the new servicing floor rates,” Mr White explained. “And financially, you’re probably paying more than what you were before.” 

It’s a catch-22 that leaves people paying more for a financial product than they might need to, but with no exit.

“We’ve got to watch this mortgage prisoner game. We’ve got to watch what happens with the first home buyer market and also the refinance market,” Mr White said, urging industry leaders and regulators alike to monitor the situation closely.

“It’s one of those things that it’s a delicate step, and one that can have unintended consequences and landmines pop up that wasn’t the intent of what was trying to be done.”

Listen to the full conversation with Peter White here.