Sydney’s speculator frenzy continues to fizzle-out, with today’s Lending Finance data for December, released by the ABS, revealing that the share of loans going to New South Wales investors registered their sixth consecutive monthly decline; with the annual value of investor mortgages also continuing to fall.
As shown below, the annual value of investor loans in New South Wales (read Sydney) fell for the third consecutive month, with Victoria (read Melbourne) – the second hottest market – also retracing:
According to the ABS, investor finance commitments in New South Wales in November were 17.3% lower than December 2014.
As at December 2015, investors accounted for a still-staggering 56.3% of total housing finance commitments (excluding refinancings) in New South Wales (Sydney), although this was down sharply from the record 60.3% share posted in June 2015. Victoria’s (read Melbourne’s) share of investor mortgages also fell to 47.5% in December, down from July’s 50.5% peak:
Putting the two charts together for New South Wales (Sydney) yields the following ripper:
Whereas the turnaround in Victoria (Melbourne) is less severe:
The investor bubble that has driven the housing market looks cooked. Now comes the hangover.
unconventionaleconomist@hotmail.com
