JULY KEY FIGURES

	Trend estimates		Seasonally adjusted estimates
	Jul 2018	Jun 2018 to Jul 2018	Jul 2018	Jun 2018 to Jul 2018
Value of dwelling commitments(a)(b)
	$m	% change	$m	% change
Total dwellings	31 249	-0.6	31 431	0.4
Owner occupied housing	21 028	0.0	21 184	1.3
Investment housing - fixed loans(c)	10 221	-1.7	10 247	-1.3
Number of dwelling commitments(a)(b)
	no.	% change	no.	% change
Owner occupied housing	52 334	-0.2	52 647	0.4
Construction of dwellings	5 765	0.2	5 899	0.6
Purchase of new dwellings	2 703	-1.8	2 650	-2.2
Purchase of established dwellings	43 866	-0.2	44 098	0.6
(a) Includes refinancing (see Glossary).
(b) Excludes alterations and additions.
(c) Excludes revolving credit.

Value of dwelling commitments, Total dwellings

No. of dwelling commitments, Owner occupied housing

JULY KEY POINTS


VALUE OF DWELLING COMMITMENTS

July 2018 compared with June 2018:

• The trend estimate for the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions fell 0.6%. Owner occupied housing commitments was flat, while investment housing commitments fell 1.7%.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions rose 0.4%.

NUMBER OF DWELLING COMMITMENTS

July 2018 compared with June 2018:

• In trend terms, the number of commitments for owner occupied housing finance fell 0.2% in July 2018.
• In trend terms, the number of commitments for the purchase of new dwellings fell 1.8%, the number of commitments for the purchase of established dwellings fell 0.2%, while the number of commitments for the construction of dwellings rose 0.2%.
• In original terms, the number of first home buyer commitments as a percentage of total owner occupied housing finance commitments fell to 18.0% in July 2018 from 18.1% in June 2018.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
August 2018	12 October 2018
September 2018	9 November 2018
October 2018	10 December 2018
November 2018	17 January 2019

UPDATED QUALITY NOTICE: FIRST HOME BUYERS NUMBERS

The number of first home buyer commitments as a percentage of total owner occupied housing finance commitments recorded strong growth from July 2017 to November 2017. The increase was driven mainly by changes to first home buyer incentive programs in New South Wales and Victoria. Some reporting issues have also been identified during this period. However, based on available information the ABS has determined that the reporting issues are not of sufficient magnitude to require revisions to ABS first home buyer statistics.

The ABS considers these statistics fit for purpose, although users should note that some reporting issues may persist. The ABS is working with APRA and the financial institutions to improve reporting through the implementation of the Economic and Financial Statistics (EFS) collection in 2019.


FORTHCOMING CHANGES

The ABS is combining Housing Finance, Australia (5609.0) and Lending Finance, Australia (5671.0) into a single, simpler publication called Lending to Households and Businesses, Australia (5601.0). An information paper which outlines the forthcoming changes in more detail and outlines the format of the new publication, as well as providing historical data in the new table structures, will be released no less than one month prior to release of the new publication. Some of the data currently published in the two publications will no longer be published in the new consolidated publication, however, some existing outputs will be further disaggregated. New analytical series will also be added with the inclusion of seasonally adjusted and trend estimates for more data items.


REVISIONS

In this issue, revisions have been made to the original series as a result of improved reporting of survey and administrative data. These revisions have affected the following series:

• Owner occupied housing for the period June 2018.
• Investment housing for the period June 2018.
• Housing loan outstandings to households for the periods February 2018, March 2018 and June 2018.

PRIVACY

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INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.