Lending indicators

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

Reference period
November 2023
Released
12/01/2024

Key statistics

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

  • rose 1.0% for housing
  • fell 5.6% for personal fixed term loans
  • fell 4.8% for business construction (a typically volatile series) and rose 0.6% in trend terms
  • fell 6.4% for business purchase of property (a typically volatile series) but was flat in trend terms

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

   Nov-2023 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Households 
 Housing27.581.013.1
  Owner Occupier (a)17.860.510.6
  Investor (a)9.721.918.0
 Personal 
  Fixed term loans2.38-5.67.9
Businesses 
 Construction2.24-4.8135.7
 Purchase of Property5.34-6.4-1.8
  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 data quality

  

Housing finance

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

  • for total housing rose 1.0% to $27.6b, after a rise of 7.1% in October. It was 13.1% higher compared to a year ago.
  • for owner-occupier housing rose 0.5% to $17.9b and was 10.6% higher compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing rose 1.9% to $9.7b and was 18.0% higher compared to a year ago
  1. All series exclude refinancing

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

  • for total housing rose 0.7% to $17.5b but was 11.9% lower compared to a year ago
  • for owner-occupier housing rose 1.5% to $11.6b but was 15.5% lower compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing fell 0.7% to $5.9b and was 3.9% lower compared to a year ago

Personal finance

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

  • for fixed term personal finance fell 5.6%, after a rise of 2.6% in October
  • for road vehicles fell 5.4%
  • for personal investment fell 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 November 2023, in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for construction finance fell 4.8%, after a rise of 1.2% in October. In trend terms, it rose 0.6%.
  • for the purchase of property fell 6.4%, after a fall of 3.7% in October. In trend terms, it was flat.

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)

   Nov-2023 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Owner occupier 
 Total housing (a)17.860.510.6
  Construction of dwellings1.650.7-12.4
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings0.992.54.2
  Purchase of existing dwellings13.89-0.114.1
 First home buyers5.252.825.8
Investor 
 Total housing (a)9.721.918.0

Number of new loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)

   Nov-2023 (No.)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Owner occupier 
 Total housing (a) 
  Construction of dwellings2 691-2.2-19.1
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings1 6963.21.9
  Purchase of existing dwellings22 9521.212.0
 First home buyers10 3953.520.3
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 November 2023, in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • to owner occupiers rose 0.5%, after a rise of 8.3% in October
  • to investors rose 1.9%, after a rise of 4.9% in October

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

  • for the purchase of existing dwellings fell 0.1% but was 14.1% higher compared to a year ago
  • for the construction of new dwellings rose 0.7% but was 12.4% lower compared to a year ago
  • for the purchase of new dwellings rose 2.5% and was 4.2% 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 November 2023, in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in Queensland rose 3.3%, in Victoria rose 2.0%, in South Australia rose 6.9%, in the Australian Capital Territory rose 9.4% and in the Northern Territory rose 6.0%
  • in New South Wales fell 1.1%, in Western Australia fell 2.9% and in Tasmania fell 15.2%

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

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

  • in Queensland rose 3.7%, in Victoria rose 2.2%, in the Australian Capital Territory rose 18.4%, in South Australia rose 6.1%, in Western Australia rose 0.5% and in the Northern Territory rose 6.9%
  • in New South Wales fell 1.4% and in Tasmania fell 11.8%

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

In November 2023, in original terms:

  • the value of new variable rate loan commitments funded in the month rose 5.7%
  • the value of new fixed rate loan commitments funded in the month fell 10.1% to the lowest point recorded in the series
  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 November 2023, in original terms, average loan sizes for owner-occupier dwellings (including construction, purchase of new dwellings and existing dwellings, excluding land, alterations and additions):

  • fell 0.3% at the national level from $610k to $608K. It was 1.5% lower compared to the record high of $618k in January 2022.
  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 November 2023, in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier first home buyers, the number of new loan commitments:

  • at the national level rose 3.5% to 10,395, following a 7.6% rise in October. It was 20.3% higher compared to a year ago.
  • in Queensland rose 10.8%, in Western Australia rose 4.7%, in Victoria rose 1.2%, in the Australian Capital Territory rose 14.2% and in South Australia rose 3.5%
  • in New South Wales fell 4.8%, in Tasmania fell 34.1% and in the Northern Territory fell 1.4%

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 Australia11 20537.0%31.7%
New South Wales2 73034.9%30.0%
Victoria3 51641.2%36.0%
Queensland2 17332.9%27.6%
South Australia72034.3%27.7%
Western Australia1 51239.6%34.5%
Tasmania15232.1%26.4%
Northern Territory8537.8%33.5%
Australian Capital Territory31743.0%37.7%

a.  Dwellings includes loan commitments for construction of dwellings, purchase of newly erected dwellings and purchase of existing dwellings.

b. 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

Personal Finance

Data files

Business Finance

Data files