MARCH KEY FIGURES

		Feb 2018	Mar 2018	Feb 2018 to Mar 2018
		$m	$m	% change
TREND ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation(a)	21 196	21 230	0.2
	Personal finance	6 238	6 220	-0.3
	Commercial finance	42 384	42 270	-0.3
	Lease finance	542	535	-1.3
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation(a)	21 415	21 010	-1.9
	Personal finance	6 319	6 160	-2.5
	Commercial finance	41 842	41 179	-1.6
	Lease finance	535	526	-1.8
(a) Excludes alterations and additions

Personal Finance

Commercial Finance

MARCH KEY POINTS


MARCH 2018 COMPARED WITH FEBRUARY 2018:

HOUSING FINANCE FOR OWNER OCCUPATION

• The total value of owner occupied housing commitments excluding alterations and additions rose 0.2% in trend terms, while the seasonally adjusted series fell 1.9%.

PERSONAL FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total personal finance commitments fell 0.3%. Fixed lending commitments fell 1.3%, while revolving credit commitments rose 1.4%.
• The seasonally adjusted series for the value of total personal finance commitments fell 2.5%. Revolving credit commitments fell 3.6% and fixed lending commitments fell 1.8%.

COMMERCIAL FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total commercial finance commitments fell 0.3%. Revolving credit commitments fell 1.2% while fixed lending commitments was flat.
• The seasonally adjusted series for the value of total commercial finance commitments fell 1.6%. Fixed lending commitments fell 3.8%, while revolving credit commitments rose 7.0%.

LEASE FINANCE

• The trend series for the value of total lease finance commitments fell 1.3% in March 2018 and the seasonally adjusted series fell 1.8%, following a fall of 2.5% in February 2018.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
April 2018	12 June 2018
May 2018	13 July 2018
June 2018	10 August 2018
July 2018	11 September 2018
August 2018	16 October 2018

FORTHCOMING CHANGES

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). The new publication will be released on 11 July 2018. 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.

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 on 12 June 2018.


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 February 2018.
• Investment housing for the period February 2018.
• Commercial Finance for the period February 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.