Residential mortgage lending by debt-to-income (DTI) purpose use (C40)

The data: coverage, periodicity and timeliness

Coverage characteristics

The table shows data from the monthly debt-to-income (DTI) survey that registered banks in New Zealand complete.

Registered banks provide data on new residential mortgage lending commitments during a reference month with a breakdown by DTI. Committed lending in the monthly DTI survey are finalised offers to customers to provide mortgage loans or to increase the loan value of an existing mortgage loan, as evidenced by the loan documents provided to the borrower.

Periodicity

We publish monthly data quarterly.

Timeliness

We publish data 31 working days after the end of the reference quarter.

Access by the public

Statistics release calendar

The statistics release calendar provides a plan of scheduled releases. We update and release it on the first working day of the month.

View the statistics release calendar

Integrity

Dissemination of terms and conditions under which official statistics are produced, including confidentiality of individual responses

We collect data under Section 93 of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1989 (the Act).

Read the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1989

We only publish aggregated data. Individual institutional data is confidential.

Provision of information about revisions and advance notice of major changes in methodology

New data, or revised data, are in bold font. This applies to the summary table only and not Excel files. We generally publish revisions when we update and release the next table. Should we need to make revisions more promptly, we will post a special note on the website. We will also post any major changes in methodology as a special note.

Total Debt to Income ratio (TDTI)

Total Debt to Income ratio (that is, Total Balance of Borrowers’ Debts (to all lenders) / Total Gross Income).

Total balance of loan values is the sum of all loan values (typically the limit of each loan) that the borrower or borrowing parties disclose they are responsible for servicing out of their income. This includes the loan value of the new commitment, and any pre-existing mortgages, although there are some debts that are typically excluded, such as business and student loans.

Unknown DTI

Borrowers and loans classified as ’unknown DTI’ are extraordinary cases where the information on borrower debts or borrower gross incomes are incomplete, unverified or not recoverable, and no reasonable proxy exists to estimate the DTI. Proxies must reflect information specific to the individual customer.

Unknown DTIs are included where DTI 'bucket' is not specified.

Borrower gross income (BGI)

Borrower gross income is the amount a bank is prepared to count in its servicing analysis (that is, that qualifies (after any applicable haircuts) based on internal policy). It includes wages and salaries, self-employment income, boarder income, rental income, superannuation and other government benefits and investment income.

Loan-to-valuation ratio (LVR)

Loan-to-valuation ratio = [loan value / property value] x 100.

New commitments ($millions)

Value of committed residential mortgage loans during a month, which are finalised offers to customers to provide mortgage loans or to increase the loan value of an existing mortgage loan, as evidenced by the loan documents provided to the borrower. Any offer to purchase a home by the customer, that is to be financed by the loan, is typically unconditional at this stage.

First home buyers

A first home buyer is a borrower intending to purchase or build a property for owner occupation in New Zealand for the first time. In the case of more than one borrowing party to a loan, borrowers are classified as first home buyers only if none of the borrowing parties have previously drawn down on housing finance for owner occupation. If the borrower, or at least one borrowing party, has previously drawn down on housing finance for owner occupation they are classified as ’other owner occupier’.

Other owner occupier without investment property collateral

Other owner occupiers are borrowers who own or are in the process of buying or building a house or flat they (or a related party) will live in, are borrowing against properties that meet that definition, are not first home buyers, and are not borrowing against any investment properties. An owner can occupy more than one property; for example, a family home and a holiday home.

Other owner-occupiers with investment property collateral

Other owner-occupiers with investment collateral are borrowing for the purpose of purchasing or building a dwelling they (or a related party) will live in, and are securing that loan at least partly against investment property collateral. An owner occupier with investment property collateral can occupy more than one property e.g. a family home and a holiday home.

Investors

Investors are entities or persons borrowing for the purpose of building or purchasing residential property to rent. The borrower is securing the loan at least partly on a non-owner occupied property and the borrower does not intend to live in the property (if any) they are seeking to build or purchase.

Auckland commitments

This includes any loan that has any Auckland investment property as collateral. It also includes any loan that has an Auckland owner occupied property as collateral, unless that loan has also had investment property as collateral and those investment properties are all outside Auckland.

Borrowers (number)

Number of monthly committed residential mortgage loans, which are finalised offers to customers to provide mortgage loans or to increase the loan value of an existing mortgage loan, as evidenced by the loan documents provided to the borrower. Any offer to purchase a home by the customer, that is to be financed by the loan, is typically unconditional at this stage.

Symbols and conventions for summary table

General notes

• Individual figures may not sum to the totals due to rounding
• Percentage changes are calculated on unrounded numbers
• You are free to copy, distribute and adapt these statistics subject to the conditions listed on our copyright page.