Australian Finance Group (AFG) yesterday released its housing finance data for the month of February, which registered the Group’s strongest February mortgage sales on record, with 7,480 finance commitments (valued at $2,956 million) over the month, an improvement of 6.9% on the previous high set in February 2012 (see next chart).
I would advise readers to exercise caution interpreting AFG’s figures. The Group’s market share fluctuates month-to-month and has also been rising in recent years. Therefore, its results do not necessarily translate to the overall mortgage market as captured later by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
To illustrate, consider the below charts showing AFG’s market share, which has trended upwards since early-2011 (see next chart).
In a similar vein, the growth of AFG mortgage commitments has diverged significantly from the ABS since November 2009 (see below charts).
Finally, AFG last month recorded all-time high mortgage sales for the month of January, whereas the total value of non-seasonally adjusted mortgages captured by the ABS was around -8% lower than January 2008.
