In short:

Banks will be told not to count HECS-HELP and other student loans in debt calculations for home loans, and to disregard HELP repayments from serviceability assessments.

APRA will also update lending rules for housing developers to clarify that a block of units does not need to be fully sold off the plan to qualify for a loan.

What's next?

The Coalition is mulling its own move on lending requirements, with a proposal soon to come before shadow cabinet.

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[–] MHLoppy@fedia.io 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It seems a bit weird to me because the loans and repayments do affect finances, making them directly relevant to loan assessments, but maybe I'd change my mind if I was more directly affected and it was the difference between me buying a home and not 🫠

[–] zero_gravitas@aussie.zone 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It seems a bit weird to me because the loans and repayments do affect finances, making them directly relevant to loan assessments

This article touches upon some more technical aspects: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/labors-plan-to-help-young-voters-with-student-debt-secure-a-home/elrkd1n69

It is understood that APRA will update the debt-to-income reporting definition so that HELP debts are no longer treated as debt for reporting purposes.

The shift would ensure student debt would no longer be treated like an unsecured loan, previously placing it in the same category as credit card or buy-now-pay-later debt.

I think it's reasonable that HECS-HELP debt shouldn't be treated the same as credit card debt. With the indexing changes (it's now indexed to the lower of CPI or WPI) a HECS-HELP debt is never going to grow in real terms.

It's only really relevant to consider the effect of the HECS-HELP repayments on net income, where it is functionally just a modifier on your marginal tax rate.

Both the ABC article and the SBS article are kind of ambiguous on one point:

ABC:

Updated guidance from financial regulators APRA and ASIC, made at the request of Treasurer Jim Chalmers, will also tell banks they can disregard HELP repayments when assessing an applicant's ability to service their mortgage if they are due to pay off the debt in "the near term".

SBS:

APRA will advise banks to exclude HECS repayments from serviceability assessments if they expect a borrower will shortly pay off their debt.

The ABC says "also" in that passage, which is weird - if they're ignoring the debt altogether, then why do they have to mention this qualifier about "if they will shortly pay off their debt"?

Maybe it's in reference to the sort of idea that I was talking about? That banks won't consider HECS-HELP as 'debt', only as effectively a higher tax rate, and that they shouldn't even take that into account if someone is only going to have that higher tax rate for a couple of years until the HECS-HELP is paid off, then it should be ignored entirely?

[–] MHLoppy@fedia.io 2 points 1 week ago

Maybe it's in reference to the sort of idea that I was talking about? That banks won't consider HECS-HELP as 'debt', only as effectively a higher tax rate, and that they shouldn't even take that into account if someone is only going to have that higher tax rate for a couple of years until the HECS-HELP is paid off, then it should be ignored entirely?

That would definitely make sense to me, but if that's what's actually happening then the reporting on it is a bit misleading imo since that's not "ignoring" or "disregard" it, just more accurately categorizing it 😅 I guess we might get more details on the specifics later!