But value of new home loan commitments up 18% over the past year
The total value of new housing loans fell 1.7% in May to $28.8 billion, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The value of new investor loans dropped 1.3% to $10.7 billion. Loans to owner-occupiers, excluding first home buyers, decreased 1.6% to $12.9 billion. First-home buyer loans fell 2.9% to $5.2 billion.
“Despite the falls seen across all types of buyers in May, the value of new home loan commitments has still risen 18% over the past 12 months,” said Fiona Cotsell (pictured above), ABS head of finance statistics. “Loans to investors have continued to see stronger growth than owner-occupiers over this period.”
The latest ABS lending indicators also showed that since May 2023, the value of new loans to investors has trended upwards across most states and territories, with the largest rises recorded in New South Wales (up 24.8%), Queensland (up 48.2%) and Western Australia (up 73.9%).
“In May, the value of new loans to investors in Queensland reached an all-time high of $2.4 billion, exceeding Victoria for the third consecutive month,” Cotsell said.
“This is mainly due to investors taking out larger loans in the sunshine state compared to this time last year. We saw the average loan size for investors in Queensland increase by 14.3% since May 2023, from $508,000 to $580,000. Comparatively, the average loan size in Victoria fell 3.2% over the same period, from $584,000 to $566,000.”
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