APRIL KEY FIGURES

		Mar 2018	Apr 2018	Mar 2018 to Apr 2018
		$m	$m	% change
TREND ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation(a)	21 132	21 103	-0.1
	Personal finance	6 243	6 236	-0.1
	Commercial finance	41 920	41 503	-1.0
	Lease finance	538	532	-1.1
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation(a)	20 960	20 993	0.2
	Personal finance	6 162	6 284	2.0
	Commercial finance	40 982	41 449	1.1
	Lease finance	528	539	2.1
(a) Excludes alterations and additions

Personal Finance

Commercial Finance

APRIL KEY POINTS


APRIL 2018 COMPARED WITH MARCH 2018:

HOUSING FINANCE FOR OWNER OCCUPATION

• The total value of owner occupied housing commitments excluding alterations and additions fell 0.1% in trend terms, while the seasonally adjusted series rose 0.2%.

PERSONAL FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total personal finance commitments fell 0.1%. Fixed lending commitments fell 1.5%, while revolving credit commitments rose 2.0%.
• The seasonally adjusted series for the value of total personal finance commitments rose 2.0%. Revolving credit commitments rose 7.6%, while fixed lending commitments fell 1.6%.

COMMERCIAL FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total commercial finance commitments fell 1.0%. Revolving credit commitments fell 2.0% and fixed lending commitments fell 0.7%.
• The seasonally adjusted series for the value of total commercial finance commitments rose 1.1%. Fixed lending commitments rose 3.2%, while revolving credit commitments fell 6.0%.

LEASE FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total lease finance commitments fell 1.1% in April 2018 while the seasonally adjusted series rose 2.1%, after a fall of 1.3% in March 2018.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
May 2018	13 July 2018
June 2018	10 August 2018
July 2018	11 September 2018
August 2018	16 October 2018

FORTHCOMING CHANGES

Delayed release of the new, streamlined monthly finance publication, Lending to Households and Businesses, Australia (5601.0)

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). Release of the new publication has been delayed while some technical issues are resolved. 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 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:

• Personal Finance for the period March 2018.
• Commercial Finance for the period March 2018.
• Investment housing finance for the period March 2018.
• Owner occupied housing for the periods January 2018 to March 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.