Lending indicators

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

Reference period
November 2022
Released
13/01/2023

Key statistics

In November 2022, new loan commitments (seasonally adjusted):

  • fell 3.7% for housing
  • fell 1.3% for personal fixed term loans
  • fell 62.1% for business construction (a typically volatile series) and fell 1.7% in trend terms
  • fell 0.7% for business purchase of property (a typically volatile series) and fell 1.6% in trend terms

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

   Nov-2022 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Households (a)
 Housing24.73-3.7-24.3
  Owner Occupier16.43-3.8-24.8
  Investor8.29-3.6-23.2
 Personal
  Fixed term loans2.25-1.35.8
Businesses
 Construction0.94-62.1-40.8
 Purchase of Property5.64-0.7-17.6
  1. Loan commitments for owner occupier, investor housing and personal fixed term loans exclude refinancing.

Important data quality notes

Seasonal adjustment methods

Suspension of trend series

Treatment of Buy Now Pay Later products in Personal finance

     

Housing finance

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

  • for total housing fell 3.7% to $24.7b, following a 2.8% fall in October. It was 24.3% lower compared to a year ago.
  • for owner-occupier housing fell 3.8% to $16.4b and was 24.8% lower compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing fell 3.6% to $8.3b and was 23.2% lower compared to a year ago
  1. All series exclude refinancing

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

  • for total housing rose 8.2% to an all-time high of $19.5b. It was 20.4% higher compared to a year ago.
  • for owner-occupier housing rose 9.1% to an all-time high of $13.4b. It was 27.1% higher compared to a year ago.
  • for investor housing rose 6.3% to $6.1b and was 7.8% higher compared to a year ago

Personal finance

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

  • for fixed term personal finance fell 1.3%, after fall of 0.5% in October
  • for personal investment fell 9.3%
  • for road vehicles fell 2.9%
  • for household goods rose 5.1% to an all-time high of $154m

Business finance

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

  • for construction finance fell 62.1%, after a rise of 66.6% in October. In trend terms, it fell 1.7%.
  • for the purchase of property fell 0.7%, after a fall of 4.1% in October. In trend terms, it fell 1.6%.

These series can have volatile month-to-month movements in seasonally adjusted terms as they are strongly affected by small numbers of high value loans.

Housing finance (detailed)

Value of new loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)

   Nov-2022 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Owner occupier
 Total housing (a)16.43-3.8-24.8
  Construction of dwellings1.92-7.0-16.1
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings0.95-5.5-25.8
  Purchase of existing dwellings12.40-2.7-25.9
 First home buyers3.87-5.7-29.2
Investor
 Total housing (a)8.29-3.6-23.2

Number of new loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)

   Nov-2022 (No.)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Owner occupier
 Total housing (a) (b)
  Construction of dwellings3 374-6.3-25.3
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings1 683-8.1-25.0
  Purchase of existing dwellings20 873-0.7-24.9
 First home buyers8 023-5.5-31.3
Investor
 Total housing (a) (b)
  1. Housing includes loan commitments for dwellings, purchase of residential land and for alterations and additions.
  2. 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 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • to owner occupiers fell 3.8%, after a fall of 3.1% in October
  • to investors fell 3.6%, after a fall of 2.3% in October

  

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

  • for the purchase of existing dwellings fell 2.7% and was 25.9% lower compared to a year ago
  • for the construction of new dwellings fell 7.0% and was 16.1% lower compared to a year ago
  • for the purchase of new dwellings fell 5.5% and was 25.8% lower compared to a year ago
  1. 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.
  2. 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 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in Victoria fell 6.0%, in New South Wales fell 3.4%, in Western Australia fell 3.9%, in Queensland fell 2.1%, in the Australian Capital Territory fell 5.4%, in South Australia fell 1.9%, in Tasmania fell 4.6% and in the Northern Territory fell 7.4%

  

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

  • in Victoria fell 4.5%, in New South Wales fell 2.2%, in the Australian Capital Territory fell 10.5%, in South Australia fell 3.5%, in Tasmania fell 16.0%, in Queensland fell 0.7% and in the Northern Territory fell 19.0%
  • in Western Australia showed no change, i.e. remained at the same level as the previous month

In November 2022, in original terms:

  • the value of new variable rate loan commitments funded in the month rose 7.2%
  • the value of new variable rate loan commitments to first home buyers funded in the month rose 2.7%
  • the value of new fixed rate loan commitments funded in the month rose 29.8%
  • the value of new fixed rate loan commitments to first home buyers funded in the month rose 2.4%
  1. 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. Due to this timing difference, the value of loans funded in the month shown in this graph will generally not reconcile with the value of new borrower-accepted commitments for the month shown in the other graphs and download tables.
  2. Total fixed rate and total variable rate housing loans include their respective first home buyer loan components

In November 2022 in original terms, average loan sizes for owner-occupier dwellings (including construction, purchase of new dwellings and existing dwellings):

  • rose at the national level from $595k to $602k
  • rose across most states, most notably in the Australian Capital Territory from $612k to $637k
  1. 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 2022 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier first home buyers, the number of new loan commitments:

  • at the national level fell 5.5% to 8,023, following a 3.3% fall in October. The November level was 50.7% below the January 2021 high of 16,261.
  • in Victoria fell 6.1%, in New South Wales fell 5.9%, in Queensland fell 5.1%, in Western Australia fell 5.7%, in the Australian Capital Territory fell 16.3%, in South Australia fell 3.9% and in the Northern Territory fell 14.9%
  • in Tasmania rose 16.4%

The Tasmania, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory series are smaller and can have more volatile month-to-month movements.

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 Australia8 88931.6%27.0%
New South Wales1 96927.2%23.2%
Victoria2 74836.3%31.0%
Queensland1 87930.0%25.2%
South Australia49825.8%21.4%
Western Australia1 34136.7%32.8%
Tasmania15728.6%23.9%
Northern Territory7231.2%28.8%
Australian Capital Territory22530.7%28.0%
  1. Dwellings includes loan commitments for construction of dwellings, purchase of newly erected dwellings and purchase of existing dwellings.
  2. 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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