Max IO period changes over time

When I bought my first IP back in 2016, the max IO period for my particular bank was 15 years. Sounded great at that time, nothing to worry for 15 years!

However, never liked the idea. Only considered the initial 5 years in my strategy as a worst case scenario.

Fast Forward to 2018 and it has now been reduced to 10 years.

Nobody has a crystal ball, I know that. However many of you have been in this game for long enough and have predicted pretty well things no-one saw coming and would like to hear your opinions.

Where do you see the Max IO period going in the next 5-10 years? Would it be reduced further? increased? Maybe no IO at all?

 

I guess it will stay the same at about 10 years.

Right now the way around this is to refinance to another lender and start a new IO term. I can see lenders/regulators restricting this.

 

Banks are already moving towards 5 years I/O after that you can do another 5 years if you can service the remainder of the term.

No chance of getting 10 or 15 years upfront in the next couple of years.

I made mine all (WBC group) 15 years I/O first up......

 

To clarify I was referring to the max IO period in total after renewing every 5 years. CBA as an example use to let you renew twice for a total of 15y IO. Not anymore. For now you can only renew once for a maximum of 10 years in total.