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MARCH KEY FIGURES

		Feb 2004	Mar 2004	Feb 2004 to Mar 2004
		$m	$m	% change
TREND ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation	9,909	9,664	-2.5
	Personal finance	6,576	6,521	-0.8
	Commercial finance	23,381	22,690	-3.0
	Lease finance	520	510	-1.8
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation	9,818	9,810	-0.1
	Personal finance	6,481	6,560	1.2
	Commercial finance	22,338	22,994	2.9
	Lease finance	528	540	2.2

Personal finance

Commercial finance

MARCH KEY POINTS


HOUSING FINANCE FOR OWNER OCCUPATION

• The total value of owner-occupied housing commitments decreased by 0.1% (seasonally adjusted) in March 2004. The trend series decreased by 2.5%.

• The seasonally adjusted series for total personal finance commitments rose by 1.2% in March 2004. The fixed lending series increased by 1.9% and revolving credit commitments increased by 0.7%.
• The total personal finance trend series fell by 0.8% in March 2004, the fourth consecutive fall.

• The total commercial finance series (seasonally adjusted) rose by 2.9% in March 2004. Revolving credit commitments and fixed lending commitments increased by 0.9% and 3.9%, respectively.
• The purchase of dwellings by individuals for rent and resale (seasonally adjusted) increased by 0.5% in March 2004, after four successive monthly decreases.
• The trend series for total commercial finance decreased by 3.0% in March 2004. Decreases were recorded in both fixed lending (down 1.9%) and revolving credit (down 5.2%).

• Lease finance (seasonally adjusted) increased by 2.2% in March 2004, following an increase of 13.9% in the previous month.
• The lease finance trend fell by 1.8% in March 2004.

HOUSING FINANCE

Publication catalogue number 5609.0 was renamed to Housing Finance, Australia for the March 2004 reference month, released 12 May 2004. It includes two additional tables:

• a new table on the Value of Finance Commitments for Housing. This new table contains information on investment housing commitments also published in table 8 (Finance Commitments for Housing) in this publication;
• a new table of home loan outstandings classified by lender. This new table contains monthly data from March 2002 for Authorised Deposit-taking Institutions (ADIs) classified by type of lender and split by owner occupation housing and investment housing. For other lending institutions, total housing loan outstandings is provided on a quarterly basis to provide a complete picture of all financial institutions providing finance for the purpose of housing.

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.

LENDING FINANCE SUMMARY OF FINDINGS


HOUSING FINANCE FOR OWNER OCCUPATION

The total value of commitments excluding alterations and additions (seasonally adjusted) decreased by 0.1% in March 2004. The trend series decreased by 2.5%.

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

PERSONAL FINANCE

The seasonally adjusted series for total personal finance rose by 1.2%, to $6 560 million in March 2004, after four successive monthly falls. Fixed lending and revolving credit commitments increased by 1.9% and 0.7%, respectively.

The total personal finance commitments trend series decreased by 0.8% in March 2004. The trend for revolving credit commitments decreased by 0.8%, while the fixed lending trend fell for a fifth successive month (down 0.9%).

In original terms, fixed lending commitments increased by 17.8%, to $3 116 million in March 2004. Fixed lending for the purchase of motor vehicles rose 14.1%..

COMMERCIAL FINANCE

The seasonally adjusted total commercial finance series increased by 2.9% in March 2004. Revolving credit commitments and fixed lending commitments rose by 0.9% and 3.9%, respectively.

The total commercial finance trend estimate decreased by 3.0% in March 2004. The fixed lending trend and the revolving credit trend fell by 1.9% and 5.2%, respectively.

The seasonally adjusted purchase of dwellings for rent or resale by individuals (investment housing) series increased to $4 524 million (up 0.5%) in March 2004, after four successive monthly decreases. The investment housing trend series fell by 5.1% in March.

Purchase of Dwellings by Individuals for Rent or Resale