AUGUST KEY FIGURES

	Trend estimates		Seasonally adjusted estimates
	Aug 2018	Jul 2018 to Aug 2018	Aug 2018	Jul 2018 to Aug 2018
Value of dwelling commitments(a)(b)
	$m	% change	$m	% change
Total dwellings	30 867	-0.6	30 667	-2.1
Owner occupied housing	20 797	-0.2	20 568	-2.7
Investment housing - fixed loans(c)	10 070	-1.2	10 099	-1.1
Number of dwelling commitments(a)(b)
	no.	% change	no.	% change
Owner occupied housing	51 754	-0.4	51 266	-2.1
Construction of dwellings	5 694	0.2	5 506	-6.2
Purchase of new dwellings	2 642	-1.9	2 659	0.3
Purchase of established dwellings	43 417	-0.4	43 102	-1.8
(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 2018 compared with July 2018:

• The trend estimate for the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions fell 0.6%. Owner occupied housing commitments fell 0.2% and investment housing commitments fell 1.2%.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions fell 2.1%.

NUMBER OF DWELLING COMMITMENTS

August 2018 compared with July 2018:

• In trend terms, the number of commitments for owner occupied housing finance fell 0.4% in August 2018.
• In trend terms, the number of commitments for the purchase of new dwellings fell 1.9%, the number of commitments for the purchase of established dwellings fell 0.4%, 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 17.8% in August 2018 from 18.0% in July 2018.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
September 2018	9 November 2018
October 2018	10 December 2018
November 2018	17 January 2019
December 2018	12 February 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 July 2018.
• Investment housing for the period July 2018.

PRIVACY

The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS will handle any personal information that you provide to the ABS.


INQUIRIES

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