MAY KEY FIGURES

	Trend estimates		Seasonally adjusted estimates
	May 2014	Apr 2014 to May 2014	May 2014	Apr 2014 to May 2014
Value of dwelling commitments(a)(b)	$m	% change	$m	% change
Total dwellings	27 623	0.2	27 489	-0.8
Owner occupied housing	16 804	0.2	16 732	-0.7
Investment housing - fixed loans(c)	10 819	0.3	10 757	-0.9
Number of dwelling commitments(a)(b)	no.	% change	no.	% change
Owner occupied housing	52 152	0.1	52 092	0.0
Construction of dwellings	6 229	0.5	6 184	0.9
Purchase of new dwellings	2 674	-0.2	2 715	1.7
Purchase of established dwellings	43 249	0.1	43 193	-0.2
(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

MAY KEY POINTS


VALUE OF DWELLING COMMITMENTS

May 2014 compared with April 2014:

• The trend estimate for the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions rose 0.2%. Investment housing commitments rose 0.3% and owner occupied housing commitments rose 0.2%.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions fell 0.8%.

NUMBER OF DWELLING COMMITMENTS

May 2014 compared with April 2014:

• In trend terms, the number of commitments for owner occupied housing finance rose 0.1%.
• In trend terms, the number of commitments for the construction of dwellings rose 0.5% and the number of commitments for the purchase of established dwellings rose 0.1%, while the number of commitments for the purchase of new dwellings fell 0.2%.
• In original terms, the number of first home buyer commitments as a percentage of total owner occupied housing finance commitments rose to 12.6% in May 2014 from 12.3% in April 2014.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
June 2014	8 August 2014
July 2014	9 September 2014
August 2014	10 October 2014
September 2014	10 November 2014
October 2014	10 December 2014
November 2014	12 January 2015

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 impacted on:

• Owner occupied housing for April 2014
• Housing loan outstandings to households for the periods June 2013 to April 2014

Seasonally adjusted and trend series have been revised as a result of revisions to the original series, the incorporation of estimates for the latest month and the revision of seasonal factors due to the concurrent seasonal adjustment methodology.


FIRST HOME BUYERS

An investigation is underway to evaluate the robustness of estimates of loans to first home buyers (Table 9). In collecting this information, lenders are asked to report all loans to first home buyers. Concerns have been raised that under-reporting could occur if some lenders were only able to accurately report on those buyers receiving a first home buyer grant.

Most data on first home buyers are collected by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) under the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001. APRA is contacting lenders on behalf of the ABS to investigate whether lenders experience any difficulties reporting on loans to first home buyers.

The outcomes from the investigation will be published on the ABS website


INQUIRIES

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