In the remainder of my talk I will deal only with housing debt and ignore other forms of household debt. 3. While borrowing for owner-occupation is still the largest part of housing debt, the fastest growing component has been borrowing for investor housing, which now represents 30 per cent of the stock of housing loans (compared with 18 per cent a decade ago). 4.
Consequently, inflation pressures have remained strong in many parts of the domestic economy, including housing and construction. •  The recent sharp rise in world oil prices is putting upward pressure on inflation as higher petrol prices ‘at the pump' and the effects of higher fuel prices risk becoming entrenched in inflation expectations.