Reserve Bank gets new tool to control house prices

A Stuff article.

The Reserve Bank will be able to impose debt-to-income ratios, limiting the amount of money home buyers can borrow for mortgages, relative to their income.

The central bank announced it had reached an agreement with Finance Minister Grant Robertson adding “debt serviceability restrictions” to the tools it could use.

The bank said its analysis showed tools such as debt-to-income (DTI) limits were likely to be “the most effective additional tool that could be deployed by the Reserve Bank to support financial stability and house price sustainability”.

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