Lending indicators

Latest release

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

Reference period
August 2024

Key statistics

In August 2024, new loan commitments (seasonally adjusted):

  • rose 1.0% for housing
  • rose 2.0% for personal fixed term loans
  • rose 7.9% for business construction (a typically volatile series) and rose 2.4% in trend terms
  • rose 2.3% for business purchase of property (a typically volatile series) and rose 1.6% in trend terms

Future changes to the Lending Indicators publication

The ABS reviews and makes changes to its Forward Work Program to ensure it continues to appropriately measure the Australian economy, environment and society while balancing ongoing budget pressures and the requirement to modernise operations. 

As a result of prioritisation, the monthly Lending Indicators publication will transition to a quarterly release. The final monthly publication will be the September reference period 2024, released 1 November 2024. The first quarterly publication will be December Quarter 2024, released in February 2025.

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

 Aug-2024 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Households 
 Housing30.381.023.0
  Owner Occupier (a)18.670.716.8
  Investor (a)11.711.434.2
 Personal 
  Fixed term loans2.742.015.3
Businesses 
 Construction3.247.961.9
 Purchase of Property6.812.321.7
  1. Loan commitments for owner occupier, investor housing and personal fixed term loans exclude refinancing.

Important data quality notes

Seasonal adjustment methods

Treatment of Buy Now Pay Later products in Personal finance

Housing finance data quality

Personal finance data quality

Housing finance

In August 2024 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for total housing rose 1.0% to $30.4b, after a rise of 3.5% in July. It was 23.0% higher compared to a year ago.
  • for owner-occupier housing rose 0.7% to $18.7b and was 16.8% higher compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing rose 1.4% to $11.7b and was 34.2% higher compared to a year ago
  1. All series exclude refinancing

In August 2024 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of external refinancing:

  • for total housing fell 3.1% to $16.1b and was 18.6% lower compared to a year ago
  • for owner-occupier housing fell 3.8% to $10.0b and was 25.1% lower compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing fell 1.8% to $6.0b and was 4.8% lower compared to a year ago

Personal finance

In August 2024 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for fixed term personal finance rose 2.0%, after a rise of 2.4% in July
  • for road vehicles rose 0.6%
  • for personal investment rose 2.3%
  1. Any missing data points in the series above are not available for publication.
  1. Any missing data points in the series above are not available for publication.

Business finance

In August 2024 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for construction finance rose 7.9%, after a rise of 5.4% in July. In trend terms, it rose 2.4%.
  • for the purchase of property rose 2.3%, after a rise of 6.3% in July. In trend terms, it rose 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.

  1. Any missing data points in the series above are not available for publication.

Housing finance (detailed)

Value of new loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)

 Aug-2024 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Owner occupier 
 Total housing (a)18.670.716.8
  Construction of dwellings1.751.613.1
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings1.04-4.112.3
  Purchase of existing dwellings14.680.517.5
 First home buyers5.33-0.417.8
Investor 
 Total housing (a)11.711.434.2

Number of new loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)

 Aug-2024 (No.)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Owner occupier 
 Total housing (a) 
  Construction of dwellings2 9241.511.1
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings1 627-4.11.3
  Purchase of existing dwellings22 422-1.16.6
 First home buyers9 869-1.59.2
Investor 
 Total housing (a) 

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

(a) 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 August 2024 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • to owner occupiers rose 0.7%, after a rise of 2.5% in July
  • to investors rose 1.4%, after a rise of 5.1% in July

In August 2024 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for the purchase of existing dwellings rose 0.5% and was 17.5% higher compared to a year ago
  • for the construction of new dwellings rose 1.6% and was 13.1% higher compared to a year ago
  • for the purchase of new dwellings fell 4.1% but was 12.3% higher compared to a year ago
  1. For periods prior to July 2019, statistics on owner occupier commitments for residential land are modelled using data about the total value of commitments for residential land.
  2. Users can hide/unhide series in the graph by clicking the legend above (e.g. toggle the "purchase of existing dwellings" series for a closer look at the other purposes of owner occupier lending).

     

In August 2024 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in Queensland rose 2.6%, in South Australia rose 2.1%, in Western Australia rose 0.5%, in the Northern Territory rose 7.8%, in Tasmania rose 1.9% and in the Australian Capital Territory rose 1.3%
  • in Victoria fell 1.8% and in New South Wales fell 1.4%

The Tasmania, Northern Territory, and Australian Capital Territory series are smaller and typically more volatile.

In August 2024 in seasonally adjusted terms for investor housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in Queensland rose 7.9%, in South Australia rose 5.1% and in the Australian Capital Territory rose 0.4%
  • in Western Australia fell 8.3%, in Victoria fell 2.7%, in Tasmania fell 9.1% and in the Northern Territory fell 8.1% 
  • in New South Wales remained unchanged from previous month

The Tasmania, Northern Territory, and Australian Capital Territory series are smaller and typically more volatile.

In August 2024, in original terms:

  • the value of new variable rate loan commitments funded in the month fell 5.3%
  • the value of new fixed rate loan commitments funded in the month fell 1.2%, remaining at historically low levels. It was 73.2% lower compared to a year ago.
  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.

In August 2024 in original terms, average loan sizes for owner-occupier dwellings (including construction, purchase of new dwellings and existing dwellings):

  • fell 0.7% at the national level from $641k to $636k
  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 August 2024 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier first home buyers, the number of new loan commitments:

  • at the national level fell 1.5% to 9 869, after a 0.6% rise in July. It was 9.2% higher compared to a year ago.
  • in Victoria fell 5.2%, in New South Wales fell 3.7% and in the Australian Capital Territory fell 5.9%
  • in South Australia rose 4.6%, in Western Australia rose 1.8%, in Queensland rose 1.0%, in Tasmania rose 7.4% and in the Northern Territory rose 1.9%

The Tasmania, Northern Territory, and Australian Capital Territory series are smaller and typically more volatile.

Additional information

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

 First home buyer loan commitments
Number
First home buyer ratio (a) -
Dwellings (b)
First home buyer ratio (a) -
Housing (c)
Total Australia9 80936.1%31.2%
New South Wales2 36435.0%30.3%
Victoria3 06939.5%35.4%
Queensland2 08533.5%28.2%
South Australia60534.4%27.9%
Western Australia1 25336.7%30.7%
Tasmania18135.3%29.6%
Northern Territory5332.7%30.6%
Australian Capital Territory19936.1%33.2%

a. The ratios in the table above are calculated against overall owner-occupier loans, including both OO FHB and OO non-FHB loans. They are not calculated against all housing loans, which would also include investor lending.

b. Dwellings includes loan commitments for construction of dwellings, purchase of newly erected dwellings and purchase of existing dwellings.

c. 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

Housing finance - Non-residents

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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