Lending indicators

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This release is about new borrower-accepted finance commitments for housing, personal and business loans

Reference period
February 2022
Released
1/04/2022

Key statistics

In February 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms, new loan commitments:

  • fell 3.7% for housing
  • rose 6.5% for personal fixed term loans
  • fell 40.2% for business construction (a typically volatile series)

New borrower-accepted loan commitments (seasonally adjusted)

 Feb-2022 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Households   
 Housing32.28-3.712.6
  Owner Occupier (a)21.53-4.7-1.0
  Investor (a)10.75-1.855.8
 Personal   
  Fixed term loans2.306.528.9
Businesses   
 Construction2.30-40.2-9.4
 Purchase of Property7.56-3.056.0

(a) Loan commitments for owner occupier, investor housing and personal fixed term loans exclude refinancing.

Important data quality note

Upcoming Housing finance revisions

Seasonal adjustment methods

Suspension of trend series

Treatment of Buy Now Pay Later products in Personal finance

Business finance: purchase of property series

     

Housing finance

In February 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for total housing fell 3.7% to $32.3b but was 12.6% higher compared to a year ago
  • for owner-occupier housing fell 4.7% to $21.5b and was 1.0% lower compared to a year ago. It was 55% higher than pre-COVID levels in February 2020.
  • for investor housing fell 1.8%, the first fall since October 2020. It remained close to the record high seen in the previous month.

In February 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of external refinancing:

  • for total housing rose 8.6% and was 14.7% higher compared to a year ago
  • for owner-occupier housing rose 11.0% after a fall of 11.0% in the previous month
  • for investor housing rose 4.2% and was 12.4% higher compared to a year ago

Personal finance

In February 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for fixed term personal finance rose 6.5%
  • for the purchase of road vehicles rose 10.8%
  • for personal investment rose 0.8%

Business finance

In February 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for total construction finance fell 40.2% after a rise of 41.6% in the previous month
  • for the purchase of property fell 3.0% after a rise of 11.0% in the previous month. This series has resumed publication this month following the resolution of reporting errors.
  • for the purchase of property grew 137% since the recent low in July 2020, driven by lending to small and medium-sized businesses. The largest growth over this time has been in lending for the purchase of non-residential buildings which grew 118% ($972m).

Housing finance (detailed)

New loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)

  Feb-2022 Month percent change Year percent change
Value ($b) (%) (%)
 Owner occupier      
  Total housing (a) 21.53 -4.7 -1.0
   Construction of dwellings 2.24 3.1 -47.1
   Purchase of newly erected dwellings 1.26 -7.2 -15.5
   Purchase of existing dwellings 16.62 -6.2 16.0
  First home buyers 4.85 -9.7 -29.0
 Investor      
  Total housing (a) 10.75 -1.8 55.8
       
Number (No.) (%) (%)
 Owner occupier      
  Total housing (a) (b)      
   Construction of dwellings 4 354 2.8 -56.8
   Purchase of newly erected dwellings 2 251 -0.4 -23.6
   Purchase of existing dwellings 26 148 -7.0 -1.3
  First home buyers 9 994 -8.3 -36.7
 Investor      
  Total housing (a) (b)      

(a) Housing includes loan commitments for dwellings, purchase of residential land and for alterations and additions.
(b) There is no seasonally adjusted or trend data available for the number of owner occupiers or investors for total housing as the data was collected from July 2019.

 

In February 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • to owner-occupiers fell 4.7%, the first fall since October 2021
  • to investors fell 1.8%, breaking 15 months of consecutive growth

  

In February 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for the purchase of existing dwellings fell 6.2%, driving the majority of the fall in the value of total owner-occupier loan commitments
  • for the purchase of new dwellings fell 7.2% and was 15.5% lower compared to a year ago
  • for the construction of new dwellings rose 3.1% but was 47.1% lower compared to a year ago

(a) For periods prior to July 2019, statistics about owner occupier commitments for residential land are modelled using data about the total value of  commitments for residential land.

* Hide/unhide series in the graph by clicking the legend above (toggle the 'purchase of existing dwellings' series for a closer look at the other purposes of owner occupier lending).

 

In February 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in New South Wales fell 10.5%, in Victoria fell 5.2%, in the Australian Capital Territory fell 23.6%, in Queensland fell 3.0%, in South Australia fell 7.6% and in the Northern Territory fell 7.2%
  • in Western Australia rose 0.6% and in Tasmania rose 2.5%

  

In February 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms for investor housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in New South Wales fell 5.5%, in Queensland fell 2.6%, in the Australian Capital Territory fell 11.9%, in South Australia fell 4.8% and in the Northern Territory fell 33.6% (a smaller, more volatile series)
  • in Victoria was flat (0%)
  • in Western Australia rose 6.8% and in Tasmania rose 2.8%

In February 2022, in original terms:

  • the value of new variable rate loan commitments funded in the month rose 12.2%
  • the value of new fixed rate loan commitments funded in the month fell 17.0%

The first home buyers series for this data have not been published this month while we work through reporting changes made by some lenders.

*A loan is considered funded once any portion of the funds is made available for the borrower to draw down according to the terms of the contract. This will occur after there is a borrower-accepted commitment to provide finance.

**Total Fixed rate and Total Variable rate housing loans include first home buyer loans

In February 2022 in original terms, average loan sizes for owner-occupier dwellings (which includes construction and the purchase of new and existing dwellings):

  • fell 3.9% at the national level from $620k to $596k
  • fell in New South Wales, in Victoria, in South Australia and in the Australian Capital Territory
  • rose in Tasmania, in Queensland, in the Northern Territory and in Western Australia

*Please note that while the series graphed above are joined between the available data points, there may be missing data points in between which are not available for publication

First home buyers

In February 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier first home buyers, the number of new loan commitments:

  • fell 8.3% at the national level, and fell across all states and territories

  • in New South Wales fell 15.5%, in Victoria fell 5.9%, in the Australian Capital Territory fell 31.9%, in Western Australia fell 4.6%, in South Australia fell 10.3%, in Queensland fell 3.3%, in the Northern Territory fell 9.5% and in Tasmania fell 0.6%

Additional information

  

New loan commitments to owner occupier first home buyers (original), number

  First home buyer loan commitments
Number
First home buyer ratio
Dwellings (a)
First home buyer ratio
Housing (b)
Total Australia 8 821 31.1% 26.3%
 New South Wales 1 817 26.8% 22.3%
 Victoria 2 865 34.7% 29.9%
 Queensland 1 783 29.1% 24.1%
 South Australia 520 25.8% 20.9%
 Western Australia 1 449 37.3% 32.8%
 Tasmania 175 33.5% 26.8%
 Northern Territory 47 23.3% 20.0%
 Australian Capital Territory 165 28.5% 24.3%

(a) Dwellings includes loan commitments for construction of dwellings, purchase of newly erected dwellings and purchase of existing dwellings.

(b) Housing includes loan commitments for dwellings, purchase of residential land and for alterations and additions.

  

Data downloads

Housing Finance - Total

Data files

   

Housing Finance - Owner-occupiers

Data files

   

Housing Finance - Investors

Data files

  

Housing Finance - First home buyers

Data files

    

Table 26. Households; Housing finance; Non-residents; New loan commitments; Numbers and values

   

Personal Finance

Data files

   

Business Finance

Data files

Data cubes

Series ID concordance mapping

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5601.0.

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