It will soon become easier for Australians with student loan debt to get a mortgage after Treasurer Jim Chalmers instructed the prudential regulator to relax how HECS was treated when banks conducted mortgage serviceability tests.
Under the responsible lending rules, banks are currently required to take a prospective homeowner’s student loan debt into account when determining how much they can borrow to buy a home, treating HECS the same way as credit card debt or personal loans.
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Michael Read is the Financial Review's economics correspondent, reporting from the federal press gallery at Parliament House. He was previously an economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia and at UBS. Connect with Michael on Twitter. Email Michael at michael.read@afr.com
