Lending indicators

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

Reference period
May 2023
Released
3/07/2023

Key statistics

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

  • rose 4.8% for housing
  • rose 4.3% for personal fixed term loans
  • fell 19.4% for business construction (a typically volatile series) but rose 1.6% in trend terms
  • rose 8.1% for business purchase of property (a typically volatile series) and rose 1.6% in trend terms

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

   May-2023 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Households
 Housing24.864.8-20.5
  Owner Occupier (a)16.374.0-20.2
  Investor (a)8.506.2-20.9
 Personal
  Fixed term loans2.264.31.3
Businesses
 Construction2.66-19.429.2
 Purchase of Property5.928.1-11.9
  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

Personal finance: household goods series

  

Housing finance

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

  • for total housing rose 4.8% to $24.9b, after a fall of 1.0% in April. It was 20.5% lower compared to a year ago.
  • for owner-occupier housing rose 4.0% to $16.4b but was 20.2% lower compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing rose 6.2% to $8.5b but was 20.9% lower compared to a year ago
  1. All series exclude refinancing

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

  • for total housing rose 8.1% to $21.0b and was 22.4% higher compared to a year ago
  • for owner-occupier housing rose 8.6% to $14.1b, reaching a new high. It was 21.0% higher compared to a year ago.
  • for investor housing rose 7.2% to $6.8b and was 25.6% higher compared to a year ago

Personal finance

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

  • for fixed term personal finance rose 4.3%, after a rise of 1.9% in April
  • for road vehicles rose 9.3%
  • for personal investment fell 8.5%

Business finance

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

  • for construction finance fell 19.4%, after a rise of 41.6% in April. In trend terms, it rose 1.6%.
  • for the purchase of property rose 8.1%, after a rise of 9.0% in April. 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.

Housing finance (detailed)

Value of new loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)

   May-2023 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Owner occupier
 Total housing (a)16.374.0-20.2
  Construction of dwellings1.544.1-34.5
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings0.964.7-17.9
  Purchase of existing dwellings12.764.2-18.0
 First home buyers4.165.5-15.1
Investor
 Total housing (a)8.506.2-20.9

Number of new loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)

   May-2023 (No.)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Owner occupier
 Total housing (a)
  Construction of dwellings2 561-0.2-40.4
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings1 7035.1-15.1
  Purchase of existing dwellings21 9895.8-12.1
 First home buyers8 3522.7-17.4
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 May 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for owner occupiers rose 4.0%, after a fall of 1.4% in April
  • for investors rose 6.2%, after a fall of 0.2% in April

  

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

  • for the purchase of existing dwellings rose 4.2% but was 18.0% lower compared to a year ago
  • for the construction of new dwellings rose 4.1% but was 34.5% lower compared to a year ago
  • for the purchase of new dwellings rose 4.7% but was 17.9% 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 May 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in New South Wales rose 9.9%, in Victoria rose 5.1%, in Western Australia rose 4.4%, in Queensland rose 1.9%, in Tasmania rose 9.6%, in South Australia rose 0.8%, in the Northern Territory rose 7.2% and in the Australian Capital Territory rose 0.3%

  

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

  • in New South Wales rose 8.5%, in Victoria rose 9.0%, in South Australia rose 17.5%, in Queensland rose 4.5%, in the Australian Capital Territory rose 33.3%, in the Northern Territory rose 33.2% and in Tasmania rose 7.2%. The ACT and NT series are smaller and typically more volatile.
  • in Western Australia fell 0.9%

In May 2023, in original terms:

  • the value of new variable rate loan commitments funded in the month rose 30.4%
  • the value of new variable rate loan commitments to first home buyers funded in the month rose 27.3%
  • the value of new fixed rate loan commitments funded in the month rose 24.9%
  • the value of new fixed rate loan commitments to first home buyers funded in the month fell 3.9%
  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 May 2023 in original terms, average loan sizes for owner-occupier dwellings (including construction, purchase of new dwellings and existing dwellings):

  • fell very slightly by 0.02% to $585k at the national level. It was 21.8% 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 May 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier first home buyers, the number of new loan commitments:

  • at the national level rose 2.7% to 8,352, after a fall of 0.3% in April. It was 17.4% lower compared to a year ago.
  • in New South Wales rose 8.9%, in Victoria rose 6.4%, in Queensland rose 2.4%, in the Australian Capital Territory rose 13.0%, in Western Australia rose 1.6% and in Tasmania rose 0.7%
  • in the Northern Territory showed no change, i.e. remained at the same level as the previous month
  • in South Australia fell 3.2%

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 Australia9 13031.7%27.2%
New South Wales2 32830.8%26.4%
Victoria2 74834.5%29.8%
Queensland1 72028.7%24.2%
South Australia54426.3%22.0%
Western Australia1 31535.3%31.3%
Tasmania15826.8%22.3%
Northern Territory6432.7%29.6%
Australian Capital Territory25334.7%32.2%
  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