Lending indicators

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

Reference period
June 2023
Released
1/08/2023

Key statistics

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

  • fell 1.0% for housing
  • fell 6.8% for personal fixed term loans
  • fell 12.3% for business construction (a typically volatile series) but rose 0.8% in trend terms
  • fell 11.4% for business purchase of property (a typically volatile series) but rose 1.3% in trend terms

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

   Jun-2023 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Households
 Housing24.60-1.0-18.2
  Owner Occupier (a)15.91-2.8-19.9
  Investor (a)8.692.6-15.0
 Personal
  Fixed term loans2.19-6.813.1
Businesses
 Construction2.33-12.33.7
 Purchase of Property5.23-11.4-15.4
  1. Loan commitments for owner occupier, investor housing and personal fixed term loans exclude refinancing.

First home buyers update

From the July 2023 publication, the number and value of new loan commitments to first home buyers have been suppressed due to data reporting issues. These series have been temporarily suspended while the ABS and APRA work with data providers to resolve the issues as soon as possible. Please take caution when using the first home buyer data in this month's publication as well as in previous months.

Important data quality notes

Seasonal adjustment methods

Treatment of Buy Now Pay Later products in Personal finance

Personal finance: household goods series

  

Housing finance

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

  • for total housing fell 1.0% to $24.6b, after a rise of 5.4% in May. It was 18.2% lower compared to a year ago
  • for owner-occupier housing fell 2.8% to $15.9b and was 19.9% lower compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing rose 2.6% to $8.7b but was 15.0% lower compared to a year ago
  1. All series exclude refinancing

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

  • for total housing fell 3.1% to $20.2b but was 12.6% higher compared to a year ago
  • for owner-occupier housing fell 2.4% to $13.7b but was 11.0% higher compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing fell 4.5% to $6.4b but was 16.2% higher compared to a year ago

Personal finance

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

  • for fixed term personal finance fell 6.8%, after a rise of 9.2% in May
  • for personal investment fell 27.6%
  • for road vehicles fell 2.7%
  • for travel and holidays rose 6.5% to the highest level since October 2018

Business finance

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

  • for construction finance fell 12.3%, after a fall of 20.7% in May. In trend terms, it rose 0.8%.
  • for the purchase of property fell 11.4%, after a rise of 8.4% in May. In trend terms, it rose 1.3%.

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)

   Jun-2023 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Owner occupier
 Total housing (a)15.91-2.8-19.9
  Construction of dwellings1.582.5-33.1
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings0.95-1.2-14.8
  Purchase of existing dwellings12.18-4.4-18.8
 First home buyers4.130.2-8.1
Investor
 Total housing (a)8.692.6-15.0

Number of new loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)

   Jun-2023 (No.)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Owner occupier
 Total housing (a)
  Construction of dwellings2 7556.1-35.8
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings1 680-1.9-11.2
  Purchase of existing dwellings20 977-4.2-13.3
 First home buyers8 239-0.8-12.2
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 June 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for owner occupiers fell 2.8%, after a rise of 5.1% in May
  • for investors rose 2.6%, after a rise of 5.9% in May

  

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

  • for the purchase of existing dwellings fell 4.4% and was 18.8% lower compared to a year ago
  • for the construction of new dwellings rose 2.5% but was 33.1% lower compared to a year ago
  • for the purchase of new dwellings fell 1.2% and was 14.8% 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 June 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in New South Wales fell 3.9%, in Victoria fell 1.4%, in Tasmania fell 12.6%, in South Australia fell 3.3%, in the Australian Capital Territory fell 3.0% and in the Northern Territory fell 0.3%
  • in Queensland rose 0.6% and in Western Australia rose 0.04%

  

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

  • in New South Wales rose 3.2%, in Queensland rose 5.4%, in Western Australia rose 7.3%, in Victoria rose 1.3%, in the Australian Capital Territory (a smaller and typically more volatile series) rose 12.8% and in Tasmania rose 3.0%
  • in South Australia fell 5.1% and in the Northern Territory fell 3.1%

In June 2023, in original terms:

  • the value of new variable rate loan commitments funded in the month fell 1.7%
  • the value of new variable rate loan commitments to first home buyers funded in the month rose 2.1%
  • the value of new fixed rate loan commitments funded in the month rose 70.8%
  • the value of new fixed rate loan commitments to first home buyers funded in the month rose 35.8%
  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 June 2023 in original terms, average loan sizes for owner-occupier dwellings (including construction, purchase of new dwellings and existing dwellings):

  • fell 0.8% at the national level from $585k to $580k. It was 20.9% 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

From the July 2023 publication, the number and value of new loan commitments to first home buyers have been suppressed due to data reporting issues. These series have been temporarily suspended while the ABS and APRA work with data providers to resolve the issues as soon as possible. Please take caution when using the first home buyer data in this month's publication as well as in previous months.

In June 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier first home buyers, the number of new loan commitments:

  • at the national level fell 0.8% to 8,239, following a 2.7% rise in May. It was 12.2% lower compared to a year ago.
  • in New South Wales fell 5.1%, in the Northern Territory (a smaller and typically more volatile series) fell 37.7%, in Western Australia fell 0.8%, in Tasmania fell 6.3% and in the Australian Capital Territory fell 0.5%
  • in Victoria rose 2.6%, in Queensland rose 0.6% and in South Australia rose 0.8%

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 49431.5%26.7%
New South Wales2 01529.8%25.0%
Victoria2 66134.9%29.3%
Queensland1 68828.3%23.9%
South Australia57330.3%24.8%
Western Australia1 17634.6%30.5%
Tasmania13327.7%23.5%
Northern Territory4023.5%20.9%
Australian Capital Territory20831.8%28.8%
  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.
  3. Some data for smaller states and territories may not be available for publication in a given month

  

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