The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) collects data on housing finance commitments made by significant lenders. Their figures include secured (mortgage) finance commitments for the construction or purchase of owner-occupied dwellings and investment properties. It has some overlap with the RBA’s monthly private sector credit statistics which also includes investor lending and owner-occupier lending.
The ABS has released housing finance figures for February and the figures indicate the number of owner-occupier approvals were 0.2% lower over the month and 0.8% lower than the same time last year. Excluding refinancing, the number of approvals declined by 0.1% for the month and 0.3% compared to February 2017.
In dollar terms, the total value of loan approvals excluding refinancing fell by 0.2% for the month and 0.8% on a year-on–year basis. Owner-occupier loan approvals (ex-refi) increased by 1.4% in February, further building on January’s revised 0.5% increase. The increase takes the annual growth rate from January’ revised figure of 6.9% to 7.6%. The monthly growth of investor loans fell from January’s 1.4% to 0.5% in February, although the annual growth “rebounded” from -11.8% in January to -5.9% in February.
