Following an impressive first-half result earlier this month, chief executive Anthony Miller signalled Westpac would keep targeting property investors to maintain its lending momentum despite mounting risks.
Less than two weeks later, the bank’s mortgage strategy looks in urgent need of a rewrite.
As Capital Brief revealed this morning, Westpac told lenders late on Friday to not count on future negative gearing in their serviceability assessments for investors, after Macquarie’s officially adjusted its own policy.
The move will slash some investors’ borrowing capacity by hundreds of thousands of dollars as banks scramble to align their lending standards with the federal budget’s restriction of the tax concession.
