MAY KEY FIGURES

	Trend estimates		Seasonally adjusted estimates
	May 2015	Apr 2015 to May 2015	May 2015	Apr 2015 to May 2015
Value of dwelling commitments(a)(b)
	$m	% change	$m	% change
Total dwellings	31 866	0.7	31 139	-4.4
Owner occupied housing	18 645	0.4	18 103	-5.3
Investment housing - fixed loans(c)	13 221	1.1	13 036	-3.2
Number of dwelling commitments(a)(b)
	no.	% change	no.	% change
Owner occupied housing	52 300	-0.2	50 366	-6.1
Construction of dwellings	5 792	-0.6	5 609	-8.3
Purchase of new dwellings	2 740	1.1	2 766	0.3
Purchase of established dwellings	43 768	-0.2	41 991	-6.2
(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

MAY KEY POINTS


VALUE OF DWELLING COMMITMENTS

May 2015 compared with April 2015:

• The trend estimate for the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions rose 0.7%. Investment housing commitments rose 1.1% and owner occupied housing commitments rose 0.4%.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions fell 4.4%.

NUMBER OF DWELLING COMMITMENTS

May 2015 compared with April 2015:

• In trend terms, the number of commitments for owner occupied housing finance fell 0.2% in May 2015.
• In trend terms, the number of commitments for the construction of dwellings fell 0.6%, the number of commitments for the purchase of established dwellings fell 0.2%, while the number of commitments for the purchase of new dwellings rose 1.1%.
• In original terms, the number of first home buyer commitments as a percentage of total owner occupied housing finance commitments rose to 15.9% in May 2015 from 15.8% in April 2015.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
June 2015	7 August 2015
July 2015	9 September 2015
August 2015	9 October 2015
September 2015	10 November 2015
October 2015	9 December 2015
November 2015	15 January 2016

REVISIONS

In this issue revisions have been made to the original series as a result of improved reporting of survey and administrative data, and modelled first home buyer estimates. These revisions have impacted on:

• First home buyers owner occupied housing for periods October 2012 to April 2015
• Owner occupied housing for June 2014, and for periods November 2014 to April 2015
• Investment housing for the period April 2015

OWNER OCCUPATION AND INVESTMENT HOUSING

Statistics in this publication are currently derived from returns submitted to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) under the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001, primarily for use by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The ABS anticipates that in the coming months some lenders will revise residential mortgage data reported to APRA. These revisions are expected to result in changes in the proportion of the investment housing statistics relative to owner occupation statistics. It is not expected that aggregate data on lending statistics for housing will change significantly. The ABS is working closely with APRA and affected lenders as they remediate their data and processes.


FIRST HOME BUYERS

Information relating to changes to the method of estimating loans to first home buyers, introduced from the December 2014 issue can be found under the First Home Buyers web page and on Page 5 of the PDF. Monthly First Home Buyer Statistics are likely to be subject to future revision, as the modelled component is adjusted to reflect improved reporting by lenders.


INQUIRIES

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