5671.0 - Lending Finance, Australia, Mar 2005

ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 13/05/2005

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Main Features
About this Release

MARCH KEY FIGURES

		Feb 2005	Mar 2005	Feb 2005 to Mar 2005
		$m	$m	% change

TREND ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation	11,672	11,884	1.8
	Personal finance	6,127	6,053	-1.2
	Commercial finance	25,700	25,501	-0.8
	Lease finance	526	522	-0.9
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation	11,836	11,992	1.3
	Personal finance	6,141	5,947	-3.2
	Commercial finance	25,929	26,098	0.7
	Lease finance	551	507	-7.9

Personal finance
Graph: Personal finance

Commercial finance
Graph: Commercial finance

MARCH KEY POINTS

HOUSING FINANCE FOR OWNER OCCUPATION

The total value of owner-occupied housing commitments excluding alterations and additions increased by 1.3% (seasonally adjusted) in March 2005. The trend series increased by 1.8%.

PERSONAL FINANCE

The seasonally adjusted series for total personal finance commitments fell by 3.2% in March 2005. Fixed lending and revolving credit commitments decreased by 1.5% and 4.4%, respectively.
The total personal finance trend series fell by 1.2% in March 2005, the fourth consecutive monthly decrease.

COMMERCIAL FINANCE

The total commercial finance series (seasonally adjusted) increased by 0.7% in March 2005. The increase in revolving credit (up 12.8%) more than offset the decrease in fixed lending (down 6.3%).
The purchase of dwellings by individuals for rent or resale (seasonally adjusted) series fell by 1.7% in March 2005, after an increase of 1.6% in February.
The trend series for total commercial finance fell by 0.8% in March 2005. This fall was due to the decrease in fixed lending (down 2.1%) more than offsetting the increase in revolving credit (up 1.5%).

LEASE FINANCE

Lease finance (seasonally adjusted) decreased by 7.9% in March 2005.
The lease finance trend fell by 0.9% in March 2005, the fourth decrease following six consecutive monthly increases.

NOTES

CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

There are no changes in this issue.

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) increased by 1.3% in March 2005. The trend series increased by 1.8%.

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

PERSONAL FINANCE

In seasonally adjusted terms, total personal finance fell by 3.2% in March 2005. Fixed lending and revolving credit commitments decreased by 1.5% and 4.4%, respectively. The total personal finance trend series fell by 1.2%.

In original terms, fixed lending commitments increased by $236m (up 9.1%) in March 2005. Movements in the original series contributing to this increase were:

Debt consolidation, up $74m (28.7%) compared with an average February to March increase of 13.0% over the previous three years,
Refinancing, up $68m (14.2%) compared with an average February to March increase of 8.6% over the previous three years.

COMMERCIAL FINANCE

Total commercial finance (seasonally adjusted) increased by 0.7% in March 2005, following an increase of 4.5% in February. The increase in the seasonally adjusted series was driven by an increase in revolving credit commitments (up 12.8%) which was partly offset by a decrease in fixed lending (down 6.3%).

The trend series for total commercial finance decreased by 0.8% in March 2005, the fourth monthly decrease following six consecutive monthly increases. This fall was due to the decrease in fixed lending (down 2.1%) more than offsetting the increase in revolving credit (up 1.5%).

The seasonally adjusted purchase of dwellings for rent or resale by individuals series fell by 1.7% in March 2005. The trend series increased by 0.8% in March 2005, the seventh consecutive monthly increase.

Graph: Purchase of dwellings by individuals for rent or resale

LEASE FINANCE

Total lease finance (seasonally adjusted) fell by 7.9% in March 2005. The lease finance trend series fell by 0.9% in March 2005, the fourth decrease following six consecutive monthly increases.

ADDITIONAL TABLES ON AUSSTATS

TABLES AVAILABLE ON AUSSTATS

Additional tables are available from the AusStats as Time Series Spreadsheets. Select 56. Finance, then 5671.0 - Lending Finance, Australia.

Tables available are:

longer time series of tables in this publication
the following tables