Lending indicators

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

Reference period
March 2024
Released
3/05/2024

Key statistics

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

  • rose 3.1% for housing
  • rose 3.9% for personal fixed term loans
  • fell 41.9% for business construction (a typically volatile series) but rose 1.7% in trend terms
  • fell 3.0% for business purchase of property (a typically volatile series) but rose 1.0% in trend terms
Value of new borrower-accepted loan commitments (seasonally adjusted)
 Mar-2024 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Households 
 Housing27.643.117.9
  Owner Occupier (a)17.482.811.4
  Investor (a)10.173.831.1
 Personal 
  Fixed term loans2.553.920.1
Businesses 
 Construction1.92-41.9-19.0
 Purchase of Property5.84-3.016.9
  1. Loan commitments for owner occupier, investor housing and personal fixed term loans exclude refinancing.

Important data quality notes

Changes to seasonal adjustment methods in this issue

Seasonal adjustment methods

Treatment of Buy Now Pay Later products in Personal finance

Personal finance data quality

Housing finance

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

  • for total housing rose 3.1% to $27.6b, after a rise of 1.9% in February. It was 17.9% higher compared to a year ago.
  • for owner-occupier housing rose 2.8% to $17.5b and was 11.4% higher compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing rose 3.8% to $10.2b and was 31.1% higher compared to a year ago
  1. All series exclude refinancing

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

  • for total housing fell 2.5% to $16.0b and was 24.9% lower compared to a year ago
  • for owner-occupier housing fell 3.1% to $10.3b and was 27.8% lower compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing fell 1.4% to $5.7b and was 19.0% lower compared to a year ago

Personal finance

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

  • for fixed term personal finance rose 3.9%, after a fall of 0.5% in February
  • for road vehicles rose 4.3%
  • for personal investment rose 1.2%
  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 March 2024 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for construction finance fell 41.9%, after a rise of 34.5% in February. In trend terms, it rose 1.7%.
  • for the purchase of property fell 3.0%, after a fall of 4.4% in February. In trend terms, it rose 1.0%.

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)
 Mar-2024 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Owner occupier 
 Total housing (a)17.482.811.4
  Construction of dwellings1.643.24.3
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings0.97-5.15.6
  Purchase of existing dwellings13.583.512.5
 First home buyers5.194.417.9
Investor 
 Total housing (a)10.173.831.1
Number of new loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)
 Mar-2024 (No.)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Owner occupier 
 Total housing (a)N/AN/AN/A
  Construction of dwellings2 7403.11.6
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings1 641-4.41.7
  Purchase of existing dwellings21 9712.97.9
 First home buyers9 9184.59.9
Investor 
 Total housing (a)N/AN/AN/A

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

  1. 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 March 2024 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • to owner occupiers rose 2.8%, after a rise of 1.5% in February
  • to investors rose 3.8%, after a rise of 2.5% in February

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

  • for the purchase of existing dwellings rose 3.5% and was 12.5% higher compared to a year ago
  • for the construction of new dwellings rose 3.2% and was 4.3% higher compared to a year ago
  • for the purchase of new dwellings fell 5.1% but was 5.6% 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 March 2024 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in Queensland rose 5.6%, in New South Wales rose 2.4%, in Western Australia rose 6.3%, in Victoria rose 2.0%, in Tasmania rose 17.8%, in South Australia rose 2.8% and in the Northern Territory rose 13.6%
  • in the Australian Capital Territory fell 19.2%

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

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

  • in New South Wales rose 6.2%, in Queensland rose 6.2%, in Western Australia rose 5.3%, in South Australia rose 3.6%, in the Northern Territory rose 14.3%, in Victoria rose 0.2%, in Tasmania rose 2.2% and in the Australian Capital Territory rose 0.7%

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

In March 2024, in original terms:

  • the value of new variable rate loan commitments funded in the month rose 12.0%
  • the value of new fixed rate loan commitments funded in the month rose 9.0%
  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 March 2024 in original terms, average loan sizes for owner-occupier dwellings (including construction, purchase of new dwellings and existing dwellings, excluding land, alterations and additions):

  • rose 1.6% at the national level from $599k to $608k
  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 March 2024 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier first home buyers, the number of new loan commitments:

  • at the national level rose 4.5% to 9,918, following a 5.4% rise in February. It was 9.9% higher compared to a year ago.
  • in Victoria rose 5.8%, in Queensland rose 4.2%, in Western Australia rose 2.8%, in Tasmania rose 12.9% and in the Australian Capital Territory rose 1.6%
  • in South Australia fell 5.9%, in New South Wales fell 0.5% and in the Northern Territory fell 14.5%

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
- Housing (c)
Total Australia9 41836.7%31.2%
New South Wales2 34436.0%30.6%
Victoria2 85940.0%35.1%
Queensland1 88933.1%27.2%
South Australia55832.8%26.8%
Western Australia1 30738.8%32.6%
Tasmania15931.2%26.4%
Northern Territory5532.5%29.9%
Australian Capital Territory24745.7%41.4%

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