AUGUST KEY FIGURES

	Trend estimates		Seasonally adjusted estimates
	Aug 2017	Jul 2017 to Aug 2017	Aug 2017	Jul 2017 to Aug 2017
Value of dwelling commitments(a)(b)
	$m	% change	$m	% change
Total dwellings	33 550	0.6	33 898	2.1
Owner occupied housing	21 176	0.9	21 265	0.9
Investment housing - fixed loans(c)	12 374	0.2	12 633	4.3
Number of dwelling commitments(a)(b)
	no.	% change	no.	% change
Owner occupied housing	56 429	1.0	57 161	1.0
Construction of dwellings	6 431	1.5	6 346	-2.4
Purchase of new dwellings	3 127	2.1	3 135	1.5
Purchase of established dwellings	46 871	0.9	47 680	1.5
(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 2017 compared with July 2017:

• The trend estimate for the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions rose 0.6%. Owner occupied housing commitments rose 0.9% and investment housing commitments rose 0.2%.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions rose 2.1%.

NUMBER OF DWELLING COMMITMENTS

August 2017 compared with July 2017:

• In trend terms, the number of commitments for owner occupied housing finance rose 1.0% in August 2017.
• In trend terms, the number of commitments for the purchase of new dwellings rose 2.1%, the number of commitments for the construction of dwellings rose 1.5% and the number of commitments for the purchase of established dwellings rose 0.9%.
• In original terms, the number of first home buyer commitments as a percentage of total owner occupied housing finance commitments rose to 17.2% in August 2017 from 16.6% in July 2017.

IMPORTANT QUALITY NOTICE: FIRST HOME BUYERS NUMBERS

The number of loans to first home buyers increased strongly in August. The ratio of the number of first home buyer loans to the total number of owner occupier loans also increased strongly. The increase has been driven mainly by changes to first home buyer incentives made in July by the New South Wales and Victorian governments. The ABS is working with financial institutions to establish the size of the increase in first home buyer lending in recent months. These numbers may be revised and users should take care when interpreting recent ABS first home buyer statistics. The ABS is continuing to work with APRA and the financial institutions to improve the quality of first home buyer statistics.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
September 2017	9 November 2017
October 2017	8 December 2017
November 2017	17 January 2018
December 2017	9 February 2018
January 2018	13 March 2018
February 2018	12 April 2018

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:

• Housing loan outstandings to households for the periods August 2016 to July 2017.

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INQUIRIES

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