Changes to APRA guidance benefit Australian home loan borrowers

1 min read | 8 Jul 2019

Last week the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) announced it will proceed with proposed changes to its regulatory guidance on serviceability assessments for residential mortgage lending. After a consultation process, APRA confirmed it will no longer expect prudent lenders to assess home loan applications using a minimum interest rate of at least 7%. Instead, APRA guidelines will enable lenders to set their own minimum interest rate floor and use a revised interest rate buffer of at least 2.5% over the loan’s interest rate. This new guidance took effect immediately.

Athena Home Loans supports this change. We are delighted to announce that we are implementing this for all current and future applications.

This regulatory change is a big win for home loan borrowers. The prior regulatory guidance had the impact of making it very challenging for some customers to refinance their existing home loan, and switch to a better value lender. It will now be easier for these customers to obtain access to better value credit than they may have been able to previously. #openforbusiness