The Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) has released data on housing transfers and mortgage lodgements for the month of February.
According to DERM, the number of housing transfers and mortgage lodgements fell by -10.1% and -3.7% respectively in February 2013. However, on a year-on-year basis, housing transfers rose by 2.1%, whereas mortgage lodgements fell by -3.7% (see next chart).
The below chart shows the same transfers and mortgage lodgements data on a rolling annual basis, which removes the month-to-month volatility:
You can see that Queensland transfers and mortgage lodgements had been in an up-trend since late-2011, but appear to have flattened-out over recent months. They also remain depressed overall, tracking -34% (transfers) and -36% (mortgages) respectively below the 13-year monthly average in February.
On a positive note, there does not yet appear to be many ill effects from the mid-October change to the First Home Buyers’ (FHB) Grant, which saw the Grant removed from pre-existing dwellings and shifted to new dwellings only. While the removal of the Grant saw FHB mortgage demand crash to the lowest level on record in January, overall mortgage demand has, to date, held-up quite well.
