Lending indicators

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

Reference period
December 2021
Released
1/02/2022

Key statistics

In December 2021 in seasonally adjusted terms, new loan commitments:

  • rose 4.4% for housing
  • rose 0.7% for personal fixed term loans
  • rose 66.6% for business construction (typically volatile series)

New borrower-accepted loan commitments (seasonally adjusted)

 Dec-2021 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Households   
 Housing32.814.426.5
  Owner Occupier (a)22.475.312.4
  Investor (a)10.342.473.9
 Personal   
  Fixed term loans2.140.722.4
Businesses   
 Construction2.7166.625.8
 Purchase of PropertyNPNPNP

(a) Loan commitments for owner occupier, investor housing and personal fixed term loans exclude refinancing.
NP: Not published due to reporting issues. See data quality notes below.

Important data quality note

Seasonal adjustment methods

Suspension of trend series

Business finance: purchase of property series

Treatment of Buy Now Pay Later products in Personal finance

Upcoming Housing finance revisions

     

Housing finance

In December 2021 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for total housing rose 4.4% to a record high of $32.8b, which was 26.5% higher compared to a year ago
  • for owner-occupier housing rose 5.3%, driving the rise in total new housing loan commitments
  • for investor housing rose 2.4% to a record high of $10.3b

In December 2021 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of external refinancing:

  • for total housing fell 0.6% but was 39.5% higher compared to a year ago
  • for owner-occupier housing rose 1.4% and was 47.4% higher compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing fell 4.3% but was 26.8% higher compared to a year ago

Personal finance

In December 2021 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for fixed term personal finance rose 0.7% 
  • for personal investment rose 17.4%
  • for road vehicles fell 0.6%

Business finance

In December 2021 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for total construction finance rose 66.6%, after a fall of 35.2% in the previous month

The purchase of property series has not been published this month, as per the note above.

Housing finance (detailed)

New loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)

  Dec-2021 Month percent change Year percent change
Value ($b) (%) (%)
 Owner occupier      
  Total housing (a) 22.47 5.3 12.4
   Construction of dwellings 2.28 -2.6 -35.1
   Purchase of newly erected dwellings 1.36 8.7 -2.1
   Purchase of existing dwellings 17.39 6.7 29.4
  First home buyers 5.67 5.3 -12.7
 Investor      
  Total housing (a) 10.34 2.4 73.9
       
Number (No.) (%) (%)
 Owner occupier      
  Total housing (a) (b)      
   Construction of dwellings 4 569 -2.8 -44.2
   Purchase of newly erected dwellings 2 456 15.0 -13.1
   Purchase of existing dwellings 27 745 1.2 11.1
  First home buyers 11 778 1.3 -21.5
 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 December 2021 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • to owner-occupiers rose 5.3%, the second consecutive monthly rise after falls from June 2021 through to October 2021
  • to investors rose 2.4%, the fourteenth consecutive month of growth. The value of these commitments reached $10.3b, surpassing the record high set in the previous month.

  

In December 2021 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for the purchase of existing dwellings rose 6.7% ($1.1b), driving the majority of the rise in the value of total owner-occupier loan commitments
  • for the purchase of new dwellings rose 8.7% but was 2.1% lower compared to a year ago
  • for the construction of new dwellings fell 2.6% and was 35.1% 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 December 2021 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in Victoria rose 5.2%, in New South Wales rose 3.0% and in Western Australia rose 7.1%, driving the overall rise in owner-occupier loan commitments
  • in Queensland rose 2.2%, in Tasmania rose 3.7% and in South Australia rose 0.2% 
  • in the Northern Territory fell 23.1% and in the Australian Capital Territory fell 3.4%

  

In December 2021 in seasonally adjusted terms for investor housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in Victoria rose 3.4%, in New South Wales rose 1.1% and in the Australian Capital Territory rose 10.4%
  • in Western Australia fell 3.7%, in Queensland fell 0.8%, in South Australia fell 2.7%, in Tasmania fell 3.5%, and in the Northern Territory fell 1.9%

Note: the graph showing new variable and fixed rate loans funded in the month is currently not published while we work through reporting changes made by some lenders. We will resume publication of this graph when we assess the data to be fit for purpose again.

 

 

In December 2021 in original terms, average loan sizes for owner-occupier dwellings (which includes construction and the purchase of new dwellings and existing dwellings):

  • rose to a record high of $602k at the national level, a rise of $6k from the previous month
  • rose to all-time highs in all states and territories except Queensland and 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 December 2021 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier first home buyers, the number of new loan commitments:

  • rose 1.3% at the national level, the second consecutive monthly rise after falls from February 2021 through to October 2021

  • in Western Australia rose 11.8%, in Queensland rose 3.8%, in Tasmania rose 21.6%, in Victoria rose 1.0%, and in South Australia rose 0.6%

  • in New South Wales fell 2.6%, in the Australian Capital Territory fell 9.9% and in the Northern Territory fell 26.4%

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 Australia13 05333.6%29.0%
 New South Wales3 04030.2%25.5%
 Victoria4 17837.2%32.4%
 Queensland2 60731.9%27.3%
 South Australia75927.6%23.6%
 Western Australia1 88039.8%35.7%
 Tasmania21031.6%24.8%
 Northern Territory68 NP24.9%
 Australian Capital Territory311 NP29.2%

NP: Not published due to the construction of dwellings and purchase of newly erected dwellings denominator not being available for publication. 

(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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