It seems that the home loan approval process may take longer due to the upcoming NCA. Seems to make sense as the bank will need to ensure they don't lend "irresponsibly". You might find that nothing will really change until someone takes them to court and they lose a whole lot of money - then credit checking will get nasty.

Berry Everitt, Chas Everitt MD said the new legislation would mean that house buyers would have to wait more than two months for their mortgage bond application to be processed.

Already, banks and other lenders are starting to implement the provision of checking a borrower's total indebtedness before granting their loan, maintained Everitt.

"To do this, they have to source information about all and any of the borrower's current personal loans, vehicle finance agreements, higher purchase agreements, store cards and micro loans, as well as existing home loans, from each and every other lender involved."

Everitt added that there is currently no consolidated database that prospective lenders can go to for this information so it will take much longer for banks to approve home loans.

Bond originators, however, say that house buyers won't have to wait as long as Everitt suggests for their applications to be processed.. They explained that, currently, it takes around five to seven working days for final approval of a home loan.

"Applications forms will get longer and more documentation will be required explained Ian Wason, Bondbusters CEO, who estimates the total processing time to go up to about ten working days.

Read the full article,Buying properties to get slower? on Moneyweb