First home buyers

In October 2019:

• the number of owner occupier first home buyer loan commitments increased 1.4% in seasonally adjusted terms
• the number of first home buyer loan commitments for investment purposes accounted for 5.7% of all first home buyer commitments
• owner occupier first home buyer loan commitments accounted for 29.9% of all owner occupier commitments (excluding refinancing)

Previously, the ABS published a first home buyer ratio which was the ratio of owner occupier first home buyer loan commitments to all owner occupier loan commitments. The table below presents two owner occupier first home buyer ratios.

• The first ratio is the ratio of first home buyer loan commitments to total dwelling commitments (excluding refinancing). This is similar to the ratio published prior to October 2019. Loan commitments for dwellings is the sum of loan commitments for construction of dwellings, newly erected dwellings and existing dwellings.
• The second ratio is a new ratio, the ratio of first home buyer loan commitments to total housing loan commitments (excluding refinancing). This ratio uses the new key statistic, total housing loan commitments. Total housing loan commitments is the sum of loan commitments for dwellings and loan commitments for purchases of residential land and alterations and additions.

The table below does not include first home buyer loan commitments for investors. Information about the number of loan commitments for investors is new. This month, for the first time, we are able to show the proportion of housing loan commitments which is for first home buyer investors (please see the graph below).

First home buyer ratios should be used with caution because the direction of movements in the ratio are often not indicative of the direction of movement in the number of first home buyers. First home buyer ratios are no longer routinely published by the ABS in the time series spreadsheets.

		Original
New loan commitments to owner occupier first home buyers (number)		First home buyer loan commitments	First home buyer ratio	First home buyer ratio
		Number	Dwellings (a)	Housing (b)
Total Australia		10 238	34.6%	29.9%
	New South Wales	2 465	29.7%	25.7%
	Victoria	3 417	39.4%	33.2%
	Queensland	2 047	33.7%	29.3%
	South Australia	559	26.3%	23.2%
	Western Australia	1 247	43.9%	38.7%
	Tasmania	189	29.0%	24.1%
	Northern Territory	80	44.2%	40.2%
	Australian Capital Territory	234	31.8%	29.2%
(a) Number of owner occupier first home buyers as a percentage of total owner occupier dwelling commitments by state.
(b) Number of owner occupier first home buyers as a percentage of total owner occupied housing commitments by state.

Owner occupier first home buyer loan commitments remain up on recent years
New loan commitments to owner occupier first home buyers, number, Australia




Victoria drove the rise in the number of owner occupier first home buyer loan commitments during October
New loan commitments to owner occupier first home buyers (seasonally adjusted), number, by state




Owner occupier first home buyer ratio (housing)
October 2019, number, original terms




Owner occupier and investor first home buyers
October 2019, number, original terms