Lending indicators

This is not the latest release View the latest release

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

Reference period
February 2023
Released
3/04/2023

Key statistics

In February 2023, new loan commitments (seasonally adjusted):

  • fell 0.9% for housing
  • rose 1.1% for personal fixed term loans
  • rose 62.2% for business construction (a typically volatile series) and rose 1.1% in trend terms
  • fell 2.0% for business purchase of property (a typically volatile series) and fell 1.1% in trend terms

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

   Feb-2023 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Households
 Housing22.64-0.9-30.9
  Owner Occupier (a)15.01-1.2-30.0
  Investor (a)7.63-0.5-32.6
 Personal
  Fixed term loans2.191.1-3.6
Businesses
 Construction2.9862.252.8
 Purchase of Property4.98-2.0-34.9
  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

In February 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for total housing fell 0.9% to $22.6b, after a fall of 2.4% in January. It was 30.9% lower compared to a year ago.
  • for owner-occupier housing fell 1.2% to $15.0b and was 30.0% lower compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing fell 0.5% to $7.6b and was 32.6% lower compared to a year ago
  1. All series exclude refinancing

In February 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of external refinancing:

  • for total housing rose 2.7% to $19.9b and was 22.6% higher compared to a year ago
  • for owner-occupier housing rose 3.5% to $13.6b and was 26.4% higher compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing rose 1.0% to $6.3b and was 14.9% higher compared to a year ago

Personal finance

In February 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for total fixed term personal finance rose 1.1%, after a rise of 0.5% in January
  • for road vehicles fell 0.3%
  • for personal investment fell 2.3%

Business finance

In February 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for construction finance rose 62.2%, after a fall of 2.2% in January. In trend terms, it rose 1.1%.
  • for the purchase of property fell 2.0%, after a fall of 0.9% in January. In trend terms, it fell 1.1%.

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)

   Feb-2023 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Owner occupier
 Total housing (a)15.01-1.2-30.0
  Construction of dwellings1.57-7.0-28.4
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings0.880.6-26.5
  Purchase of existing dwellings11.52-0.5-30.7
 First home buyers3.490.9-26.8
Investor
 Total housing (a)7.63-0.5-32.6

Number of new loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)

   Feb-2023 (No.)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Owner occupier
 Total housing (a)
  Construction of dwellings2 732-4.8-36.0
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings1 535-0.8-26.5
  Purchase of existing dwellings18 977-1.2-28.0
 First home buyers7 022-3.5-29.9
Investor
 Total housing (a)
  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 February 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for owner occupiers fell 1.2%, after a fall of 2.1% in January
  • for investors fell 0.5%, after a fall of 3.0% in January

  

In February 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for the purchase of existing dwellings fell 0.5% and was 30.7% lower compared to a year ago
  • for the construction of new dwellings fell 7.0% and was 28.4% lower compared to a year ago
  • for the purchase of new dwellings rose 0.6% but was 26.5% 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 February 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in New South Wales rose 6.5% and in Victoria rose 2.3%
  • in Queensland fell 3.5%, in Western Australia fell 2.5%, in the Northern Territory fell 21.2%, in South Australia fell 2.2%, in Tasmania fell 5.1% and in the Australian Capital Territory fell 2.8%

  

In February 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms for investor housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in New South Wales rose 6.9%, in South Australia rose 7.9%, in Western Australia rose 3.4% and in Tasmania rose 17.2%
  • in the Australian Capital Territory fell 36.9%, in Victoria fell 4.0%, in Queensland fell 4.9% and in the Northern Territory fell 27.8%. The NT and ACT series are smaller and more volatile.

In February 2023, in original terms:

  • the value of new variable rate loan commitments funded in the month rose 2.2%
  • the value of new variable rate loan commitments to first home buyers funded in the month fell 16.2%
  • the value of new fixed rate loan commitments funded in the month rose 15.7%
  • the value of new fixed rate loan commitments to first home buyers funded in the month fell 4.3%
  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 February 2023 in original terms, average loan sizes for owner-occupier dwellings (including construction, purchase of new dwellings and existing dwellings):

  • fell at the national level from $601k to $586k but was 22.0% higher compared to the pre-pandemic average seen in February 2020
  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 February 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier first home buyers, the number of new loan commitments:

  • at the national level fell 3.5% to 7,022, after a fall of 4.6% in January. It was 57.0% lower than the January 2021 high and 26.7% lower than the pre-pandemic level seen in February 2020.
  • in New South Wales rose 5.9%, in the Australian Capital Territory rose 14.9% and in the Northern Territory rose 3.0%
  • in Western Australia fell 7.3%, in Victoria fell 2.7%, in South Australia fell 4.9%, in Queensland fell 0.5% and in Tasmania fell 2.2%

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 Australia6 48531.2%26.3%
New South Wales1 36327.9%23.1%
Victoria1 83732.9%27.8%
Queensland1 47930.5%25.9%
South Australia38025.9%20.7%
Western Australia1 04036.2%31.8%
Tasmania13130.0%25.0%
Northern Territory55NA%30.4%
Australian Capital Territory200NA%34.6%
  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