The borrowing capacity of a first home buyer earning $100,000 a year could be increased by as much as $106,000 if the 3 per cent serviceability buffer were to be reduced to 1 per cent, but mortgage brokers aren’t convinced that tweaking the rules will do enough to fix the housing affordability crisis.

Since October 2021, banks have been required by the prudential regulator to test if borrowers can service their loans if rates were to increase by 3 percentage points. With lending rates hovering around 6 per cent, that’s a 9 per cent hurdle that needs to be cleared on top of inflated property prices.