ASB joins rivals in cracking down on offshore property buyers

ASB to stop considering overseas income in mortgage applications where a customer does not hold NZ citizenship or permanent residency

13th Jun 16, 5:32pm by Gareth Vaughan

ASB has joined its key rivals in tightening lending criteria for overseas house buyers with offshore income.

"Overseas income will no longer be considered in applications where the customer does not hold New Zealand citizenship or permanent residency. Where a customer does hold New Zealand citizenship or permanent residency, we will consider overseas income on a case-by-case basis subject to certain conditions," an ASB spokeswoman told interest.co.nz.

"We continue to consider applications from customers without New Zealand citizenship or permanent residency where overseas income does not form part of the application, subject to certain conditions."

The ASB changes are effective from Tuesday, June 14.

ANZ and Westpac both unveiled changes to their policies in this area last Thursday, and BNZ followed on Friday.

The changes by NZ banks come after their Australian parents halted lending to non-residents and temporary visa holders earlier this year. Subsequent to that The Australian Financial Review reported both ANZ and Westpac had discovered they had approved "hundreds" of home loans backed by fraudulent Chinese income documents, allegedly put together with the assistance of mortgage brokers. Interest.co.nz recently reported on claims of mortgage fraud in NZ along the lines of that reported by the AFR in Australia.

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14 Comments

by Justice | 13th Jun 16, 6:26pm 1465799218

Ok great. Unfortunately this is all too little too late and has the aroma of some kind of public relations exercise.

by Boatman | 13th Jun 16, 8:14pm 1465805690

Justice , if you think the banks are doing this for altruistic reasons or to help New Zealanders , you are delusional

There is only one reason for this , and that is RISK .

And this is no even a story , the NZ banks do very little residential mortgage business with non-resident foreigners anyway

Add to this the fact Foreigners often lie about their income , lie about their taxes , lie about their liabilities and fail to disclose their exposures to Banks in their home countries

In short, they are very risky clients to lend to , so I don't understand why this is being so widely reported as something new ?

by Justice | 14th Jun 16, 12:45pm 1465865131

Don't think I said any of that BM. A public relations exercise as you say is not necessarily helping anyone but the banks. That clear now?

by evita | 13th Jun 16, 6:48pm 1465800505

Yes Justice yor are correct. It is PR exercise.

All this would not have hapened if had PM who was working in the interest of the people of NZ.

Has also put RBNZ in a position which is uncomfortable and the omly reason is that PM is on his on trip and not worling for the people of NZ.

PM attitute and stubernous is not only in blaming all but himself but also not accepting what everyone knows and is talking about.

No words to describe.

Would like to see someone starting a website/ survey to know how many support the PM than the data that mentioned about 46% vite for JK would also be exposed or may be they took the survey only from 46% speculator, hence the result.

by tomalteruk | 13th Jun 16, 6:59pm 1465801173

Wait N Watch. National will be out next year but by than NZ will be .......

National too knows and are hoping that the market does not tank before next election and are n will try everything undrr their control to not do anything to prevent the ever rising price and anyone who tries will not get the right response be it Bank or RBNZ.

Only if we had fair and Just government.

May be it is our Karma to have national in govt but Karma is B so am sure will catch up with all in national

by Boatman | 13th Jun 16, 8:07pm 1465805240

Why are we even reporting this nonsense in the media? Its not a story at all , and I don't know what the Banks are trying to prove with these press releases .

Quite simply the BANKS ARE LYING to us .... AGAIN, or at least they are misleading us .( remember them tell us to fix our mortgages last year) ?

The truth is , hardly any mortgages over 50 LTVR on NZ residential property are granted (ever) to non-resident foreigners to buy houses .

The reason for this is simply because its way too difficult to assess the bankability of someone living in India or Brazil. or China or South Africa due to currency volatility and the inability to measure their assets' value properly and understand their tax rates and true disposable income , as well as their exposure to offshore financial institutions.

I challenge you to ask the banks for the stats on mortgages to foreigners as part of our access to information laws

Its has always been incredibly difficult for foreigners to get a mortgage for a local house from a New Zealand bank , so its not new , and I have no idea why we are even reporting this nonsense.

by evita | 13th Jun 16, 8:18pm 1465805932

Boatman as too much hue and cry about housing crisis, may be it is a cover by bank to please government as it is in line with national policy to not act on the housing crisis but to potray that something is been hapening.

Even RBNZ if so much worried, why are they not implementing the measures now. What is wait and watch.

At the end of the day everyone toes government policy and less said the better about our Hon government.

Though so much hapening still the arrogance and denial of the government is beyond shamelesness.

by tomalteruk | 13th Jun 16, 8:32pm 1465806753

National party is on self destruction mode. Everyday they are exposing themselves by their action and speech and have lost total creditability which is beyond repair.

Wait and watch. People are running out of patience and government by their arrogence are leaving no stone unturned to add fuel to fire. Wait and watch.

by ngakonui gold | 13th Jun 16, 9:24pm 1465809840

I would prefer it if they stopped sponsoring the All Blacks and Ambassador Richie and gave me more money on my Term Deposit.

by bigblue | 13th Jun 16, 11:01pm 1465815686

Righto so Nick Smithwit, Key, Engrish etc all say there is no foreign buyer problem yet Twyford found that 39.5% of Barfoots buyers had Chinese names. The govt data then showed 39% of buyers in the first quarter were either foreign based, foreign students based here or people on temporary work visas.
It would now appear that with the Banks clamping down on foreign buyers that the smokescreen has been lifted and it was 39% after all. Why would the banks be worried if it was only 4% as the government tried to con us into believing.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=114…

by bigblue | 13th Jun 16, 11:02pm 1465815748

Has Wheeler had a secret meeting with the bankers?

by Northland Hippy | 14th Jun 16, 7:34am 1465846447

STOP foreign ownership of NZ land.and houses.
CAP immigration at 10,000 useful people.
The bubble will deflate over time.
Working class NZers can slowly be integrated back into NZ property ownership as the bubble deflates.

by iconoclast | 14th Jun 16, 8:47am 1465850876

Any word from the two Chinese Banks operating in NZ - will they follow suit ?

by sammnz | 14th Jun 16, 11:19am 1465859972

lol