The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) collects data on housing finance commitments made by significant lenders and 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 September which indicate the number of owner-occupier approvals excluding refinancing fell by 2.3% over the month. Excluding refinancing, the total number of approvals fell by 2.9% for the month but grew by 11.8% for the year.
In dollar terms, owner-occupier loan approvals (excluding refinancing) fell by 2.1%, down from August’s revised figure of -0.6%. In annual terms the value of approvals rose by 13.3%, also down from August’s revised annual rate of 17.1%.
Investor loan approvals also fell. On a monthly basis, approvals in this segment fell by 6.2% after a 4.8% rise in August. On an annual basis September finance approvals were down by 6.0%, a substantial turnaround from August’s +6.4%.
ANZ senior economist Daniel Gradwell said he thought the numbers indicated the housing market had further cooling to come. “Housing finance commitments in September recorded the largest decline in two years, and falling auction results suggest the market has further to cool through the remainder of 2017 and into 2018.”