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JANUARY KEY FIGURES

		Dec 2004	Jan 2005	Dec 2004 to Jan 2005
		$m	$m	% change
TREND ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation	11,024	11,144	1.1
	Personal finance	6,284	6,283	-
	Commercial finance	26,191	25,882	-1.2
	Lease finance	541	535	-1.1
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation	11,224	11,150	-0.7
	Personal finance	6,240	6,256	0.3
	Commercial finance	25,997	24,901	-4.2
	Lease finance	521	529	1.4
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

Personal finance

Commercial finance

JANUARY KEY POINTS


HOUSING FINANCE FOR OWNER OCCUPATION

• The total value of owner-occupied housing commitments excluding alterations and additions decreased by 0.7% (seasonally adjusted) in January 2005. The trend series increased by 1.1%.

• The seasonally adjusted series for total personal finance commitments rose by 0.3% in January 2005. Fixed lending decreased by 5.8% while revolving credit commitments increased by 5.3%.
• The total personal finance trend series remained virtually unchanged in January 2005, after also remaining steady in December 2004 following two months of slight increases.

• The total commercial finance series (seasonally adjusted) fell by 4.2% in January 2005. Fixed lending decreased by 6.8% while revolving credit increased by 1.2%.
• The purchase of dwellings by individuals for rent or resale (seasonally adjusted) series fell by 0.8% in January 2005, following rises in the past two months
• The trend series for total commercial finance fell by 1.2% in January 2005. This fall was due to decreases in both fixed lending (down 0.3%) and revolving credit (down 2.9%).

• Lease finance (seasonally adjusted) increased by 1.4% in January 2005.
• The lease finance trend fell by 1.1% in January 2005, the second slight increase following six consecutive monthly increases.

REVISIONS IN THIS ISSUE

As announced in the last issue, revisions to a number of series have been introduced in this issue. This follows consultation with a number of data providers. The key series affected are outlined below.

The value of owner occupied housing commitments for the construction of dwellings (Table 8) has been revised downward back to November 1995, mainly due to the incorrect inclusion of finance commitments for the purchase of individual residential blocks of land. Where a subsequent commitment is required to finance the construction of an owner-occupied dwelling, these land loans are included as a Personal Finance commitment (Table 4).

Some providers have corrected under-reporting of housing finance commitments. This has resulted in upward revisions to all of the purpose components of housing finance commitments in Table 8 for both owner occupation (secured finance) and commercial finance.

Revisions have also been made to the levels of personal finance and commercial finance commitments back to July 2002, as a result of revisions supplied by providers and improved coverage of finance commitments.

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Vincent Nguyen on Canberra (02) 6252 6398.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS


HOUSING FINANCE FOR OWNER OCCUPATION

The total value of commitments excluding alterations and additions (seasonally adjusted) decreased by 0.7% in January 2005. The trend series increased by 1.1%.

For further information, please refer to Housing Finance, Australia (cat. no. 5609.0).

PERSONAL FINANCE

In seasonally adjusted terms, total personal finance rose by 0.3% in January 2005. Fixed lending commitments decreased by 5.8% while revolving credit increased by 5.3%. The trend series remained virtually unchanged from the December level.

In original terms, fixed lending commitments decreased by $558m (down 19.8%) in January 2005. Movements in the original series contributing to the decrease in seasonally adjusted terms were:

• Other fixed lending, down $158m (22.6%) compared with an average December to January decrease of 9.1% over the previous three years
• Refinancing, down $152m (24.5%) compared with an average December to January decrease of 5.2% over the previous three years.

The trend series for total commercial finance decreased by 1.2% in January 2005, the second monthly decrease following six consecutive monthly increases. Falls were recorded in fixed lending (down 0.3%) and revolving credit (down 2.9%).

The seasonally adjusted purchase of dwellings for rent or resale by individuals series increased to $4,855 million (down 0.8%) in January 2005. The trend series increased by 1.7% in January 2005, the fifth consecutive monthly increase.

PURCHASE OF DWELLINGS BY INDIVIDUALS FOR RENT OR RESALE