Owner-occupier home loans rise 10.1%
The great Australian dream of homeownership is alive and well says Bankwest’s Ian Rakhit as the latest ABS data reveals the value of new owner-occupier home loans has dramatically increased.
The ABS Lending Indicators for November 2023 shows the value of these owner-occupier loan commitments jumped 10.1% for the year and the number of these commitments rose 7.3%.
Rakhit, Bankwest general manager third party, said the bank’s Home Truths research series reflected the findings of the ABS.
Gen Z pushing homeownership, says Bankwest
According to Rakhit (pictured above left), the Bankwest data showed 49% of the next generation of homebuyers, Gen Z, was either currently in the market to buy a home or actively saving for a deposit.
“We know many homebuyers are finding it difficult in the current market, whether building in a rising interest rate environment or facing into the extremely low rental vacancies, particularly in WA,” Rakhit said.
“However, these results also show a surge in confidence in the younger generation, which might be put down to the current environment being all they’ve known, in terms of the housing market.”
Owner-occupier loan values rise
Mish Tan (pictured above right), ABS head of finance statistics, said during November there was continued growth in the value and number of new owner-occupiers’ dwelling loan commitments, which increased 0.1% and 1% in the month respectively.
The value of total new investor loan commitments rose 1.9% in November and was 18% higher compared to a year ago.
“The growth in owner-occupier and investor lending seen through 2023 was driven by the three states with the largest populations,” Dr Tan said. “For both owner-occupiers and investors, NSW saw the most growth.”
Rakhit said Bankwest was working on making the homeownership journey as easy as possible, particularly for the “critical broker network”.
“We experienced an increase of about 20% in investor loans across 2023 as a result of efficiencies through policy improvements,” Rakhit said.
“Changes to other policy settings, such as simplifying our assessment of self-employed applicants, led to us observing a trend of overall volume increase towards the end of 2023, including for owner-occupiers.
“Bankwest strives to be a simple, easy bank for current and aspiring homeowners across the country, and we’re committed to supporting more Australians in fulfilling their homeownership dreams.”
First home buyer loans also rising
The ABS Lending Indicators show that the number of new owner-occupier first home buyer loan commitments rose 3.5% in November 2023 and was 20.3% higher compared to a year ago and the value of these commitments rose 2.8% in the month and was 25.8% compared to a year ago.
The number of refinanced owner-occupier loan commitments between lenders rose 4.2% to 21,482 in the month. The record high of 28,132 was in July 2023.
RateCity.com.au’s first weekly wrap-up of interest rate movements for 2024 revealed only a handful of adjustments across lenders.
Three lenders made major rate moves over the week of January 10 to 16: Beyond Bank, ME Bank, and Auswide Bank.
Over the past week, there were minimal changes to variable home loan rates across the market.
One notable change is The Capricornian’s ascent to the top spot for the lowest advertised variable rate lender. With a competitive rate of 5.69%, The Capricornian has dethroned the previous leader, Abal Bank.
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