5671.0 - Lending Finance, Australia, Mar 2006

ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 16/05/2006

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About this Release

MARCH KEY FIGURES

		Feb 2006	Mar 2006	Feb 2006 to Mar 2006
		$m	$m	% change

TREND ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation	13 007	13 054	0.4
	Personal finance	6 492	6 647	2.4
	Commercial finance	33 956	34 757	2.4
	Lease finance	622	623	-
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation	13 040	13 124	0.6
	Personal finance	6 525	6 799	4.2
	Commercial finance	33 496	35 545	6.1
	Lease finance	561	561	0.1

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

Personal finance
Graph: PERSONAL FINANCE

Commercial finance
Graph: COMMERCIAL FINANCE

MARCH KEY POINTS

HOUSING FINANCE FOR OWNER OCCUPATION

March 2006 COMPARED WITH February 2006:

The total value of owner-occupied housing commitments excluding alterations and additions increased by 0.6% (seasonally adjusted), while the trend series rose 0.4%.

PERSONAL FINANCE

March 2006 COMPARED WITH February 2006:

The seasonally adjusted series for the value of total personal finance commitments rose by 4.2%. This increase was due to a rise in revolving credit commitments by 8.5% (see Notes p.2), partially offset by a fall in fixed lending commitments (down 1.3%).
The trend series for the value of total personal finance commitments rose by 2.4% due to increases in both revolving credit commitments (up 3.5%) and fixed lending (up 0.9%).

COMMERCIAL FINANCE

March 2006 COMPARED WITH February 2006:

The seasonally adjusted series for the value of total commercial finance commitments rose by 6.1%. This increase was due to increases in fixed lending commitments (up 11.7%), partially offset by a decrease in revolving credit commitments (down 4.2%).
The trend series for the value of total commercial finance commitments rose by 2.4%. Fixed lending commitments increased by 2.6%, while revolving credit rose by 1.8%.

LEASE FINANCE

March 2006 COMPARED WITH February 2006:

Lease finance commitments (seasonally adjusted) increased by 0.1%. The lease finance trend series recorded virtually no change.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
April 2006	9 June 2006
May 2006	12 July 2006
June 2006	11 August 2006
July 2006	11 September 2006
August 2006	13 October 2006
September 2006	13 November 2006

CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

The rise in new and increased personal revolving credit limits reported in this issue should be considered in conjunction with the increase in cancellations and reductions in credit limits. There are strong increases in both these estimates due to changed activity in a number of credit card products. The net change in total credit limits is relatively small. See Table 5.

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Michael Abbondante on Canberra (02) 6252 6707.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

HOUSING FINANCE FOR OWNER OCCUPATION

The total value of owner occupied housing commitments excluding alterations and additions increased by 0.6% (seasonally adjusted) in March 2006 compared with February 2006, while the trend series rose 0.4%

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

PERSONAL FINANCE

In seasonally adjusted terms, the value of total personal finance commitments rose by 4.2% in March 2006 compared with February 2006. This increase was due to an increase in revolving credit commitments (up 8.5%), partially offset by a decrease in fixed lending commitments (down 1.3%).

The increase in new and increased credit limits was offset by an increase in cancellations and reductions, reflecting both increased competition in the credit card market and the initial phasing out of a key credit card product. New and increased credit limits (original series) increased by 34%, while there was a 41% increase in cancellations. The overall increase in the level of total revolving credit limits (original series) was $1,980m (up 0.9%).

In trend terms, the value of total personal finance commitments rose by 2.4% in March 2006. The trend series for revolving credit commitments rose 3.5%, while fixed lending commitments increased by 0.9%.

In original terms, fixed lending commitments increased by $390m (up 14.3%) in March 2006, with fixed loan refinancing up $118m (19.9%).

COMMERCIAL FINANCE

The seasonally adjusted series for the value of total commercial finance commitments rose by 6.1% in March 2006 compared to February 2006. The increase was due to an increase in fixed lending commitments (up 11.7%) more than offsetting a decrease in revolving credit commitments (down 4.2%).

The trend series for commercial finance commitments increased 2.4% in March 2006. There was an increase in fixed lending commitments (up 2.6%), while revolving credit commitments rose 1.8%.

The value of purchases of dwellings by individuals for rent or resale (seasonally adjusted) rose by 1.0% in March 2006, after a decrease of 1.3% in February 2006. The trend series fell by 0.1%, the first decrease after seven consecutive monthly increases.

PURCHASE OF DWELLINGS BY INDIVIDUALS FOR RENT OR RESALE
Graph: PURCHASE OF DWELLINGS BY INDIVIDUALS FOR RENT OR RESALE

LEASE FINANCE

The value of lease finance commitments (seasonally adjusted) increased by 0.1%. The trend series for lease finance commitments remained virtually unchanged.

ADDITIONAL TABLES ON AUSSTATS

TABLES AVAILABLE ON AUSSTATS

Additional tables are available from the AusStats service on <https://www.abs.gov.au> by selecting Time Series Spreadsheets and then Finance.

Tables available are:

longer time series of tables in this publication
the following tables