MARCH KEY FIGURES

	Trend estimates		Seasonally adjusted estimates
	Mar 2018	Feb 2018 to Mar 2018	Mar 2018	Feb 2018 to Mar 2018
Value of dwelling commitments(a)(b)
	$m	% change	$m	% change
Total dwellings	32 683	-0.2	31 890	-4.4
Owner occupied housing	21 230	0.2	21 010	-1.9
Investment housing - fixed loans(c)	11 453	-0.9	10 880	-9.0
Number of dwelling commitments(a)(b)
	no.	% change	no.	% change
Owner occupied housing	53 620	-0.7	53 017	-2.2
Construction of dwellings	5 862	-1.2	5 613	-4.4
Purchase of new dwellings	2 980	-0.8	3 013	-1.4
Purchase of established dwellings	44 778	-0.7	44 391	-1.9
(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

MARCH KEY POINTS


VALUE OF DWELLING COMMITMENTS

March 2018 compared with February 2018:

• The trend estimate for the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions fell 0.2%. Owner occupied housing commitments rose 0.2% while investment housing commitments fell 0.9%.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions fell 4.4%.

NUMBER OF DWELLING COMMITMENTS

March 2018 compared with February 2018:

• In trend terms, the number of commitments for owner occupied housing finance fell 0.7% in March 2018.
• In trend terms, the number of commitments for the construction of dwellings fell 1.2%, the number of commitments for the purchase of new dwellings fell 0.8% and the number of commitments for the purchase of established dwellings fell 0.7%.
• In original terms, the number of first home buyer commitments as a percentage of total owner occupied housing finance commitments fell to 17.4% in March 2018 from 17.9% in February 2018.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
April 2018	12 June 2018
May 2018	11 July 2018
June 2018	8 August 2018
July 2018	7 September 2018
August 2018	12 October 2018

IMPORTANT QUALITY NOTICE: FIRST HOME BUYERS NUMBERS

The number of first home buyer commitments as a percentage of total owner occupied housing finance commitments recorded strong growth from July 2017 to November 2017. The increase has been driven mainly by changes to first home buyer incentive programs in New South Wales and Victoria. The ABS is working with APRA and the financial institutions to establish the size of the increase in first home buyer lending and improve the quality of first home buyer statistics more broadly. These numbers may be revised and users should take care when interpreting ABS first home buyer statistics.


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). The new publication will be released on 11 July 2018. 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.

An information paper which outlines the forthcoming changes in more detail and format of the new publication, as well as historical data in the new table structures, will be released on 12 June 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:

• Investment housing for the period February 2018.
• Housing loan outstandings to households for the periods November 2017 to February 2018.

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.