•  Coalition wants to ease lending rules

By STEPHEN JOHNSON, ECONOMICS REPORTER FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Published: 22:48 BST, 31 March 2025 | Updated: 22:55 BST, 31 March 2025

Peter Dutton is campaigning to shake-up to home lending rules hoping this will make it easier for younger Australians to get their first property.

Middle house prices in every state capital city are beyond the reach of average-income earners on a low, six-figure salary buying on their own.

Australia’s strict lending rules make it even harder to get a loan, with the banks required to assess a prospective borrower’s ability to cope with a three percentage point increase in variable mortgage rates.

Michael Sukkar, the Coalition’s housing spokesman, is announcing on Tuesday a plan to ease these lending requirements.

‘Right now, Australians without access to the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’ are punished by higher borrowing costs – even when the actual risk is the same or lower,’ he will tell a Melbourne conference.

‘That’s a systemic bias in favour of inherited wealth. We will remove it.

‘The Coalition will not accept a situation where a generation of Australians do not have the same opportunities for home ownership that previous generations have enjoyed.’

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has, since November 2021, required lenders to model a borrower’s ability to cope with a three percentage point increase in variable mortgage rates.

Peter Dutton is set to announce a major shake-up to home lending rules hoping this will make it easier for younger Australians to get their first property

Peter Dutton is set to announce a major shake-up to home lending rules hoping this will make it easier for younger Australians to get their first property

The banking regulator’s stress test was raised from 2.5 percentage points back when the Reserve Bank cash rate was at a record-low of 0.1 per cent.

RBA mortgage rates rose by 4.25 percentage points in 2022 and 2023, as borrowers copped the most severe rate rise pain since the late 1980s. 

But rates were cut by 25 basis points in February, from 4.35 per cent to 4.1 per cent. 

While the Reserve Bank is expected to leave interest rates on hold on Tuesday, the futyures  

:
Peter Dutton announces huge change that will make buying a home easier for millions of Aussies

***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk