AUGUST KEY FIGURES

	Trend estimates		Seasonally adjusted estimates
	Aug 2016	Jul 2016 to Aug 2016	Aug 2016	Jul 2016 to Aug 2016
Value of dwelling commitments(a)(b)
	$m	% change	$m	% change
Total dwellings	31 735	-0.2	31 413	-1.0
Owner occupied housing	19 820	-0.9	19 497	-1.6
Investment housing - fixed loans(c)	11 914	1.0	11 915	0.1
Number of dwelling commitments(a)(b)
	no.	% change	no.	% change
Owner occupied housing	54 600	-1.3	53 109	-3.0
Construction of dwellings	5 641	-0.3	5 671	3.7
Purchase of new dwellings	2 651	0.1	2 614	-0.4
Purchase of established dwellings	46 308	-1.5	44 824	-3.9
(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

AUGUST KEY POINTS


VALUE OF DWELLING COMMITMENTS

August 2016 compared with July 2016:

• The trend estimate for the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions fell 0.2%. Investment housing commitments rose 1.0%, while owner occupied housing commitments fell 0.9%.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, the total value of dwelling finance commitments, excluding alterations and additions fell 1.0%.

NUMBER OF DWELLING COMMITMENTS

August 2016 compared with July 2016:

• In trend terms, the number of commitments for owner occupied housing finance fell 1.3% in August 2016.
• In trend terms, the number of commitments for the purchase of established dwellings fell 1.5%, the number of commitments for the construction of dwellings fell 0.3%, while the number of commitments for the purchase of new dwellings rose 0.1%.
• In original terms, the number of first home buyer commitments as a percentage of total owner occupied housing finance commitments rose to 13.4% in August 2016 from 13.2% in July 2016.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
September 2016	10 November 2016
October 2016	9 December 2016
November 2016	17 January 2017
December 2016	10 February 2017
January 2017	10 March 2017
February 2017	10 April 2017

REVISIONS

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

Investment housing for period March 2016 to July 2016.

Housing loan outstandings to households; owner-occupied and investment housing: for period September 2015 to July 2016.

First Home Buyers owner occupied housing for period October 2012 to July 2016.


CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

In this issue of this publication the monthly first home buyer statistics have been revised. Information relating to these revisions and methods of estimating loans to first home buyers, can be found on page 5 of the PDF, in the Information Paper: Changes to ABS First Home Buyer Statistics(cat. no. 5609.0.55.004) released on the ABS website on 4 October 2016 and under the First Home Buyers web page, on page 5 of the PDF.

First home buyers are defined as persons entering the home ownership market as owner-occupiers for the first time. First time investors are excluded.


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INQUIRIES

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