Lending indicators

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

Reference period
October 2020
Released
3/12/2020

Key statistics

In October 2020, new loan commitments (seasonally adjusted):

  • rose 0.7% for housing
  • rose 4.3% for personal fixed term loans
  • fell 2.1% for business construction (typically volatile series)

New borrower-accepted loan commitments (seasonally adjusted)

 Oct-20 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Households   
 Housing22.680.723.3
  Owner occupier (a)17.390.831.2
  Investor (a)5.290.32.8
 Personal   
  Fixed term loans1.564.3-7.9
Businesses   
 Construction2.02-2.1-40.3
 Purchase of property3.65-7.8-10.4

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

 

Record high in new loan commitments for housing

The total value of new loan commitments for housing and the value of owner occupier home loan commitments each reached record highs in October 2020.

The total value of new loan commitments for housing rose 0.7 per cent to $22.7 billion in October, seasonally adjusted. 

The value of new owner occupier home loan commitments rose 0.8 per cent to $17.4 billion in October 2020, more than 30 per cent higher than October 2019. 

Commitments for the construction of new dwellings rose 10.9 per cent and was the largest contributor to the rise in October’s owner occupier housing loan commitments. The value of construction loan commitments has risen by 65.6 per cent since July, which coincides with the June 2020 implementation of the Government’s HomeBuilder grant in response to COVID-19. Feedback from lenders was that there has been a large increase in first home buyers applying for these construction loans over the last few months.

In October, the number of owner occupier first home buyer loan commitments increased by 3.4 per cent to reach 13,481 (seasonally adjusted) which was more than 30 percent higher than in any pre-COVID month since 2009, when the first home owner grant was temporarily tripled as part of the Commonwealth Government’s economic stimulus package in response to the global financial crisis.

The value of owner occupier home loan commitments rose in all states and territories except Victoria and Australian Capital Territory. Victorian owner occupier home loan commitments fell 9.3 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms reflecting decreased housing market activity in August and September due to COVID-19 stage 4 restrictions in Melbourne and stage 3 in the rest of Victoria.

The values of commitments for existing dwellings and for residential land fell in Victoria. These falls were partly offset by rises in commitments for construction of new dwellings and for purchase of newly erected dwellings.

The total value of loan commitments for investor housing was unchanged at $5.3 billion.

The value of new loan commitments for fixed term personal finance rose 4.3 per cent in October, seasonally adjusted, as commitments for vehicles continued to recover from the fall in August.

This recent article provides an overview of the dwelling construction and finance process, and how specific events are recorded in certain Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data series, including the Lending Indicators publication. It also describes how government grants, such as HomeBuilder, interact with the construction and finance process, and how such grants will impact ABS statistics.

 

Important data quality note

Economic and Financial Statistics (EFS) collection

Lender type breakdowns

Coronavirus (COVID-19) effects in October data

Suspension of trend series

Update to seasonal adjustment methods

  

  

  

Housing

New loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)

 Oct-2020Month percent changeYear percent change
Value($b)(%)(%)
 Owner occupier   
      Total housing (a)17.390.831.2
  Construction of dwellings2.8510.985.5
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings1.190.018.8
  Purchase of existing dwellings11.74-1.420.2
      First home buyers5.473.148.6
 Investor   
      Total housing (a)5.290.32.8
    
Number(No.)(%)(%)
 Owner occupier   
      Total housing (a) (b)---
  Construction of dwellings6 63111.582.8
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings2 434-1.017.0
  Purchase of existing dwellings23 261-2.514.6
      First home buyers13 4813.448.1
 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.

 

  

(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).

 

  

  

*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.

First home buyers

In October 2020:

  • the number of owner occupier first home buyer loan commitments increased 3.4% in seasonally adjusted terms
  • the number of first home buyer loan commitments for investment purposes accounted for 4.0% of all first home buyer commitments, in original terms
  • owner occupier first home buyer loan commitments accounted for 35.3% of all owner occupier commitments (excluding refinancing), in original terms

 

Additional information

  

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

 First home buyer loan commitmentsFirst home buyer ratio
 NumberDwellingsHousing
Total Australia 1412642.335.3
  New South Wales 344237.132.2
  Victoria 338046.536.2
  Queensland 331041.435.2
  South Australia 90235.928.6
  Western Australia 232951.444.0
  Tasmania 33243.733.8
  Northern Territory 12248.043.6
  Australian Capital Territory 30939.635.1

  

* Investor first home buyers (number) for Tas and NT are not available for publication

Data downloads

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

Data cubes

Series ID concordance mapping

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5601.0.

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