With a third of new mortgage lending at that time taking place at LVRs of 80 percent or higher, the overall stock of high LVR mortgages was likely to approach 25 percent. As a result of the LVR restrictions, the stock of highly leveraged loans across the banks’ mortgage portfolios is now around 8 percent.
Figure 1: LVR policy continues to strengthen bank balance sheets High-LVR share of bank’s residential mortgage portfolios Introduction of restrictions on high-LVR lending  Source: Registered banks’ Disclosure Statements, RBNZ Lending Position Survey  Some commentators expected the LVR restrictions to fall heavily on first home borrowers.