Australian non-major lender CUA has changed is lending policies to make it easier for people to access finance for apartment purchases, with most of the changes targeted toward the owner-occupied unit market.

One of the changes is CUA’s definition of high-density apartments. It now applies to buildings with six or more floors or more than 50 apartments. Previously, it was defined as a building with four floors or more than 30 apartments.

CUA also recently issued a media release to correct misreporting of changes to its apartment loan criteria in Fairfax Media publications. CUA said that it had not just introduced a policy of not lending for the purchase of apartments of less than 40 square metres, as that had been already its longstanding policy.

According to CUA general manager of sales Andy Rigg, these changes are designed to help more apartment buyers qualify for a CUA home loan. “Some of the changes are also designed to manage the risks from forecasts of an apartment oversupply in some Australian cities in the coming two years,” he added.

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