House + Home Loans managing director Rael Bricker said he can understand the banks are trying to protect themselves, but feels some ‘age policies’ have gone too far.
“It should be viewed much more on a case by case basis,” he said. “I think lending managers are all so nervous about being on Channel 7 chucking someone out of their house when they’re 65 that they’re being more cautious than they need to be.”
Allan Faint, director of Home Finance Centres of Australia, said that since the end of the GFC, lenders have largely refused to make exceptions for financially sound older borrowers.
“It’s not right that somebody in their 50s can’t get a loan. The only thing that’s changed is the terminology. There’s nothing specific in the legislation that says somebody in their 50s can’t get one but the terminology has changed so that it can be twisted that way,” Faint said.
Faint added that it’s time lenders addressed the discrimination. “Something needs to be done about it. Nobody is willing to say it’s because of age discrimination and it drives me nuts.”
