investment lending is and was always the smallest part of the...

investment lending is and was always the smallest part of the housing market. its people buying PPOR that moves the market as a whole more so than investment lending. The public perception was that investment lending was almost entirely responsible for the prices rising, thats just not correct and never has been. In my view, APRA has caved more so to public, and political pressure to save face, rather than the actual fundamentals of the housing market. The regulations were fine just as they were, if anything the banks should be broken up to diversify the main risk to the housing market that is a huge concentration of capital amongst very few lenders, to a small number of houses / land per capita. Another big reason I believe for the APRA changes, was pressure from the Chinese government to various western governments to stop capital flight from china to the west.

The overall LVR for australia is around 30% LVR, thats for all dwellings so 1/3 homes owned outright. This isn't majority of investment lending which would see a much lower overall LVR, as it would be more cashflow efficient to run at a higher LVR. IF your to assume that it was investment lending that prompted the APRA changes, which I do not.