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Lending indicators

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This release is about new borrower-accepted finance commitments for housing, personal and business loans

Reference period
April 2022
Released
3/06/2022

Key statistics

In April 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • fell 6.4% for housing
  • fell 3.7% for personal fixed term loans
  • fell 8.5% for business construction (a typically volatile series)
  • fell 4.7% for business purchase of property (a typically volatile series)

Value of new borrower-accepted loan commitments (seasonally adjusted)

  Apr-2022 ($b) Month percent change (%) Year percent change (%)
Households      
 Housing 30.99 -6.4 0.3
  Owner Occupier (a) 19.91 -7.3 -12.8
  Investor (a) 11.08 -4.8 37.1
 Personal      
  Fixed term loans 2.19 -3.7 18.0
Businesses      
 Construction 2.21 -8.5 12.7
 Purchase of Property 6.06 -4.7 10.3

(a) Loan commitments for owner occupier, investor housing and personal fixed term loans exclude refinancing.

Important data quality notes

2022 review of seasonal adjustment factors

April 2022 seasonal adjustment

Suspension of trend series

Treatment of Buy Now Pay Later products in Personal finance

     

Housing finance

In April 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for total housing fell 6.4% to $31.0b, following a rise of of 2.1% in March
  • for owner-occupier housing fell 7.3% to $19.9b, the largest fall since May 2020
  • for investor housing fell 4.8% to $11.1b, after 9 consecutive months of growth since June 2021

In April 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of external refinancing:

  • for total housing fell 2.6% but was 19.2% higher compared to a year ago
  • for owner-occupier housing fell 0.2% but was 23.6% higher compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing fell 7.3% but was 10.8% higher compared to a year ago

Personal finance

In April 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for total fixed term personal finance fell 3.7%
  • for personal investment fell 20.6%
  • for the purchase of road vehicles fell 6.7%

Business finance

In April 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for total construction finance fell 8.5%, after a rise of 27.4% in the previous month
  • for the purchase of property fell 4.7%, the third consecutive month of falls

Housing finance (detailed)

New loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)

  Apr-2022 Month percent change Year percent change
Value ($b) (%) (%)
 Owner occupier      
  Total housing (a) 19.91 -7.3 -12.8
   Construction of dwellings 2.10 -3.5 -34.7
   Purchase of newly erected dwellings 1.09 -12.8 -29.5
   Purchase of existing dwellings 15.43 -7.2 -6.5
  First home buyers 4.73 -6.2 -29.7
 Investor      
  Total housing (a) 11.08 -4.8 37.1
       
Number (No.) (%) (%)
 Owner occupier      
  Total housing (a) (b)      
   Construction of dwellings 3 937 -2.0 -45.6
   Purchase of newly erected dwellings 1 865 -13.3 -34.6
   Purchase of existing dwellings 24 498 -5.8 -14.8
  First home buyers 9 916 -4.4 -34.3
 Investor      
  Total housing (a) (b)      

(a) Housing includes loan commitments for dwellings, purchase of residential land and for alterations and additions.
(b) There is no seasonally adjusted or trend data available for the number of owner occupiers or investors for total housing as the data was collected from July 2019.

 

In April 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • to owner-occupiers fell 7.3%, the largest monthly fall since May 2020
  • to investors fell 4.8%, the first fall since June 2021

  

In April 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for the purchase of existing dwellings fell 7.2% and was 6.5% lower compared to a year ago
  • for the purchase of new dwellings fell 12.8% and was 29.5% lower compared to a year ago
  • for the construction of new dwellings fell 3.5% and was 34.7% lower compared to a year ago

(a) For periods prior to July 2019, statistics about owner occupier commitments for residential land are modelled using data about the total value of  commitments for residential land.

* Hide/unhide series in the graph by clicking the legend above (toggle the 'purchase of existing dwellings' series for a closer look at the other purposes of owner occupier lending).

 

In April 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in New South Wales fell 12.6%, in Victoria fell 9.7%, in Queensland fell 2.4%, in Western Australia fell 3.6%, in the Australian Capital Territory fell 6.9%, in South Australia fell 1.2% and in the Northern Territory fell 5.3%
  • in Tasmania rose 5.7%

  

In April 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms for investor housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in Queensland fell 17.2%, in New South Wales fell 8.3%, in Victoria fell 5.3%, in Western Australia fell 3.2%, in Tasmania fell 14.8%, in South Australia fell 1.1% and in the Northern Territory fell 2.2%
  • in the Australian Capital Territory rose 4.3%

In April 2022, in original terms:

  • the value of new variable rate loan commitments funded in the month fell 5.0%
  • the value of new variable rate loan commitments to first home buyers funded in the month rose 5.4%
  • the value of new fixed rate loan commitments funded in the month fell 32.0%
  • the value of new fixed rate loan commitments to first home buyers funded in the month fell 20.6%

*A loan is considered funded once any portion of the funds is made available for the borrower to draw down according to the terms of the contract. This will occur after there is a borrower-accepted commitment to provide finance.

**Total Fixed rate and Total Variable rate housing loans include first home buyer loans

In April 2022 in original terms, average loan sizes for owner-occupier dwellings (which includes construction and the purchase of new and existing dwellings):

  • rose 1.9% at the national level from $600k to $611k. Average loan sizes have, in general, continued to increase despite a recent moderation in owner-occupier lending activity. This reflects a larger decline in the number of loan commitments relative to their value.
  • rose in New South Wales, in Western Australia, in Queensland, in Victoria and in South Australia
  • fell in Tasmania

*Please note that while the series graphed above are joined between the available data points, there may be missing data points in between which are not available for publication

First home buyers

In April 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier first home buyers, the number of new loan commitments:

  • fell 4.4% at the national level and was 34.3% lower compared to a year ago

  • in Victoria fell 10.1%, in New South Wales fell 11.4%, in Western Australia fell 3.4%, in Tasmania fell 8.4%, in the Northern Territory fell 12.9%, in the Australian Capital Territory fell 1.1% and in South Australia fell 0.3%

  • in Queensland rose 5.1%

Additional information

  

New loan commitments to owner occupier first home buyers (original), number

  First home buyer loan commitments
Number
First home buyer ratio
Dwellings (a)
First home buyer ratio
Housing (b)
Total Australia 8 975 31.5% 26.8%
 New South Wales 2 014 28.1% 23.6%
 Victoria 2 724 34.3% 29.7%
 Queensland 1 867 30.7% 25.7%
 South Australia 498 25.0% 20.2%
 Western Australia 1 440 38.4% 33.7%
 Tasmania 136 25.2% 19.8%
 Northern Territory 47 21.9% 19.4%
 Australian Capital Territory 249 32.7% 29.5%

(a) Dwellings includes loan commitments for construction of dwellings, purchase of newly erected dwellings and purchase of existing dwellings.

(b) Housing includes loan commitments for dwellings, purchase of residential land and for alterations and additions.

  

Data downloads

Housing Finance - Total

Data files

   

Housing Finance - Owner-occupiers

Data files

   

Housing Finance - Investors

Data files

  

Housing Finance - First home buyers

Data files

    

Table 26. Households; Housing finance; Non-residents; New loan commitments; Numbers and values

   

Personal Finance

Data files

   

Business Finance

Data files

Data cubes

Series ID concordance mapping

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5601.0.

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