DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

	Trend estimates		Seasonally adjusted estimates
	Dec 2017	Nov 2017 to Dec 2017	Dec 2017	Nov 2017 to Dec 2017
Value of dwelling commitments(a)(b)
	$m	% change	$m	% change
Total dwellings	32 984	-0.1	32 883	-1.6
Owner occupied housing	21 073	0.1	21 067	-1.0
Investment housing - fixed loans(c)	11 911	-0.5	11 816	-2.6
Number of dwelling commitments(a)(b)
	no.	% change	no.	% change
Owner occupied housing	55 783	-0.3	55 161	-2.3
Construction of dwellings	6 083	-0.8	6 096	-1.1
Purchase of new dwellings	3 156	-0.1	3 089	-3.8
Purchase of established dwellings	46 543	-0.3	45 976	-2.3
(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

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


VALUE OF DWELLING COMMITMENTS

December 2017 compared with November 2017:

• The trend estimate for the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions fell 0.1%. Owner occupied housing commitments rose 0.1% while investment housing commitments fell 0.5%.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions fell 1.6%.

NUMBER OF DWELLING COMMITMENTS

December 2017 compared with November 2017:

• In trend terms, the number of commitments for owner occupied housing finance fell 0.3% in December 2017.
• In trend terms, the number of commitments for the construction of dwellings fell 0.8%, the number of commitments for the purchase of established dwellings fell 0.3% and the number of commitments for the purchase of new dwellings fell 0.1%.
• In original terms, the number of first home buyer commitments as a percentage of total owner occupied housing finance commitments fell to 17.9% in December 2017 from 18.0% in November 2017.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
January 2018	13 March 2018
February 2018	12 April 2018
March 2018	11 May 2018
April 2018	12 June 2018
May 2018	11 July 2018
June 2018	8 August 2018

IMPORTANT QUALITY NOTICE: FIRST HOME BUYERS NUMBERS

The number of loans to first home buyers has recorded strong growth in recent months. 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 APRA and the financial institutions to establish the size of the increase in first home buyer lending in recent months and improve the quality of first home buyer statistics more broadly. These numbers may be revised and users should take care when interpreting recent ABS first home buyer statistics.


FORTHCOMING CHANGES

A new publication will soon be released which will see Housing Finance, Australia (5609.0) and Lending Finance, Australia (5671.0) combined into a single, simpler publication called Lending to Households and Businesses, Australia (5601.0).

To enable users to prepare for the new publication, tables of data in the new publication format will be released no less than one month prior to the first release of Lending to Households and Businesses, Australia (5601.0).


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 November 2017.
• Investment housing for the period October 2017.

PRIVACY

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INQUIRIES

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