The central bank yesterday released its Financial Stability Report (FSR), which economists examined closely for any hints about a change in direction.
Reserve Bank deputy governor Grant Spencer said loan-to-value restrictions had increased the resilience of bank lenders to any fall in house prices.
However, a significant share of housing loans were being made at high debt-to-income (DTI) ratios.
''Such borrowers tend to be more vulnerable to any increase in interest rates or declines in income.''
The Reserve Bank would soon release a consultation paper proposing the addition of DTI restrictions to its macro-prudential toolkit, he said.
The Reserve Bank was making progress
on other initiatives. A review of bank capital requirements was under way and the bank had recently released an issues paper on the intended scope of the review, Mr Spencer said.
ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley said Mr Spencer also acknowledged the outlook for the housing market remained uncertain, particularly as current rates of residential building were insufficient to meet population growth.
Labour finance spokesman Grant Robertson said Mr Spencer had sent a ''clear message'' to the National-led Government its failure to address housing represented a risk to New Zealand's financial stability.
''The housing crisis that has developed over nine years of National Government is their real legacy. The Reserve Bank's FSR has highlighted the housing market as the number one risk to the economy.''
The blame lay at the feet of the Government which had denied the existence of a housing crisis and sought to blame everyone else for the shortfall in house building, he said.
''There is an urgent need for a large-scale building programme of affordable homes.''
The Reserve Bank report made it clear the risk represented by the housing crisis went beyond Auckland. There was a need to increase supply to address the underlying imbalance between demand and supply in many regions, Mr Robertson said.
New Zealanders were seeing the impact with those unable to afford to buy a house staying in rental accommodation, which in turn, was driving up rents.
Interest.co.nz released its housing affordability data yesterday which showed housing became more affordable for first-home buyers in most parts of the country as lower-end dwelling prices dropped and mortgages remained unchanged.
Lower-quartile prices for April fell in Northland, Auckland, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Nelson/Marlborough, Canterbury/Westland and Southland compared with March.
Prices rose in Waikato/Bay of Plenty, Manawatu/Whanganui, Wellington, Central Otago/Lakes and Otago.
The report said all of Central Otago was now unaffordable for first-home buyers, joining ''typical'' first-home buyers in the Queenstown Lakes district.
While lower-quartile house prices in Queenstown had been out of reach for typical first-home buyers for several years, in April, the lower-quartile price of the entire Central Otago/Lakes district hit a record of $551,900.
That pushed the mortgage payments for a lower-quartile-priced home past the 40% affordability threshold to 40.1% of the median net take-home pay of working couples aged 25-29, interest.co.nz spokesman Greg Ninness said.
''That means the entire Central Otago/Lakes region is now considered unaffordable for typical first-home buyers. However, Auckland and Central Otago/Lakes are still the only regions in the country where housing is unaffordable for first-home buyers.''
In all other regions, the mortgage payments on a lower-priced home would take up less than a third of take-home pay of typical first-home buyers. In many regions it would be less than a quarter.
In Otago, it was 17.2%. In Southland it was 10.2% and in Canterbury it was 22.7%. All of New Zealand was 22%.
