Lending indicators

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

Reference period
November 2021
Released
14/01/2022

Key statistics

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

  • rose 6.3% for housing
  • rose 4.5% for personal fixed term loans
  • fell 35.2% for business construction (typically volatile series)

New borrower-accepted loan commitments (seasonally adjusted)

 Nov-2021 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Households   
 Housing31.446.333.2
  Owner Occupier (a)21.347.617.2
  Investor (a)10.103.886.9
 Personal   
  Fixed term loans2.124.522.3
Businesses   
 Construction1.63-35.245.6
 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 November 2021 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for total housing rose 6.3% to $31.4b, and was 33.2% higher compared to a year ago
  • for owner-occupier housing rose 7.6% and was 17.2% higher compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing rose 3.8% to an all-time high of $10.1b

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

  • for total housing fell 2.3% but was 55.1% higher compared to a year ago
  • for owner-occupier housing fell 2.1% but was 60.5% higher compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing fell 2.5% but was 46.3% higher compared to a year ago

Personal finance

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

  • for fixed term personal finance rose 4.5% 
  • for road vehicles rose 4.8%
  • for personal investment fell 0.6%

Business finance

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

  • for construction finance fell 35.2%, with a 27.9% fall in finance for the construction of dwellings

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)

  Nov-2021 Month percent change Year percent change
Value ($b) (%) (%)
 Owner occupier      
  Total housing (a) 21.34 7.6 17.2
   Construction of dwellings 2.34 8.2 -23.2
   Purchase of newly erected dwellings 1.25 3.0 -2.3
   Purchase of existing dwellings 16.30 7.7 32.5
  First home buyers 5.38 3.7 -6.0
 Investor      
  Total housing (a) 10.10 3.8 86.9
       
Number (No.) (%) (%)
 Owner occupier      
  Total housing (a) (b)      
   Construction of dwellings 4 703 5.5 -34.5
   Purchase of newly erected dwellings 2 135 -2.8 -11.7
   Purchase of existing dwellings 27 419 4.3 12.7
  First home buyers 11 622 1.9 -17.4
 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 November 2021 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • to owner-occupiers rose 7.6%, the first rise since May 2021 and the largest since January 2021
  • to investors rose 3.8%, the thirteenth consecutive month of growth. The value of these commitments reached $10.1b, surpassing the previous all-time high in April 2015.

  

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

  • for the purchase of existing dwellings rose 7.7%, contributing 77.9% to the rise in the value of total owner-occupier commitments 
  • for the construction of new dwellings rose 8.2%, breaking the decline since the all-time high reached in February 2021. The value of these commitments was 23.2% lower compared to a year ago.
  • for the purchase of new dwellings rose 3.0%, though it was 2.3% 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 November 2021 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in New South Wales rose 9.6% and in Victoria rose 9.7%, driving the overall rise in owner-occupier loan commitments
  • in Queensland rose 5.4%, in the Australian Capital Territory rose 21.4%, in South Australia rose 4.0%, in the Northern Territory rose 33.0% and in Western Australia rose 0.4%
  • in Tasmania fell 0.6%

  

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

  • in New South Wales rose 7.8%, in Queensland rose 5.0% and in Victoria rose 3.6%. These states contributed the majority of the overall rise in investor loan commitments.
  • in South Australia rose 3.6%, in Western Australia rose 2.4% and in Tasmania rose 2.5%
  • in the Northern Territory fell 40.9% (a smaller, more volatile series) and in the Australian Capital Territory fell 8.2%

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

  • rose 4.3% at the national level to an all-time high of $596k
  • rose to all-time highs in all states and territories except Western Australia

*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 November 2021 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier first home buyers, the number of new loan commitments:

  • rose 1.9% at the national level, breaking nine months of consecutive falls since January 2021

  • rose most strongly in Victoria by 12.3%, though it was 6.7% lower compared to a year ago

  • rose in New South Wales by 2.2%, in the Australian Capital Territory by 27.1%, in Western Australia by 1.3% and in the Northern Territory by 22.5%

  • fell in Queensland by 1.5%, in South Australia by 4.6% and in Tasmania by 15.8%

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 13 057 33.9% 29.2%
 New South Wales 3 160 30.7% 26.0%
 Victoria 3 953 37.3% 32.8%
 Queensland 2 736 32.5% 27.9%
 South Australia 772 29.0% 24.1%
 Western Australia 1 785 38.4% 34.2%
 Tasmania 199 32.5% 24.7%
 Northern Territory 116 35.8% 32.2%
 Australian Capital Territory 336 33.9% 30.7%

  

Data downloads

We have transitioned to releasing Excel files in the .XLSX format from the 3rd of December 2021.

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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