RBA seeks ways to limit housing investment

New regulations to curb some of the investor froth in the housing market look set to be introduced before the end of the year.

But RBA assistant governor Malcolm Edey has stressed to a Senate committee that Australia's financial regulators are not trying to kill the investor market, just address imbalances compared to the rest of the sector.

However, senators wanting a peek into the central bank's so-called macroprudential tool kit would have been disappointed.

Dr Edey was reluctant to detail specific tools that might be used, refusing to "rule anything in or out" and saying it would be determined by the banking watchdog, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.

"The tools we are talking about need to be carefully targeted," is all Dr Edey would tell the committee in Canberra on Thursday.

Loans to investors currently account for close to 50 per cent of new housing loan approvals.

With approvals rising by 90 per cent in the past two years for loans in NSW, the RBA believes this market activity is becoming "unbalanced".

He said APRA has already tightened up the prudential framework for banks in the past year or so.

"I see what they are talking about now is very much turning up the dial of that," he said.

He wouldn't rule out there being more than one announcement if the first turn of the dial proves insufficient.

Among APRA's tools, it may consider incentives to make banks lend less to restrain the growth in lending, while considering lending practices in some areas of the housing market more generally.

Asked if he felt negative gearing might be contributing to the imbalance in the market, Dr Edey said it might be.

But he said this tax regime has been in place for a long time and is not something that has triggered the recent bout of activity.

The RBA's head of financial stability Luci Ellis told the hearing that this imbalance is primarily in the Sydney and Melbourne markets.

She said prices are rising in other places, but not by amounts that would cause concern.

"(But) we are worried about what the downside of that house price cycle would look like," she said.

She said there is always going to be some speculative demand in any market, but calling it a housing bubble is not particularly helpful.