Bank mortgage lending hits fresh record in October

Bank mortgage lending hits fresh record in October
Staff reporters
In a further sign of how on fire the housing market is, new mortgage lending by banks in October reached a record $7.78 billion, up from the previous record of $7.32 billion in September.But only 9.6 percent of the new lending was at loan-to-valuation ratios above 80 percent, down from 10.8 percent in September, according to the latest Reserve Bank data.Owner-occupiers accounted for 74.6 percent of the new lending, down from 76.5 percent in September, while $1.9 billion of lending to investors was up from $1.66 billion in September and just $56...