The extraordinary Sydney property bubble

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By Leith van Onselen

The speculator frenzy that has engulfed Sydney’s housing market just won’t quit, with today’s Lending Finance data for January, released by the ABS, once again smashing all records, with both the value and proportion of mortgages going to New South Wales investors surging to another all time high.

As shown below, the value of investor loans in New South Wales (read Sydney) continues to rocket, with Victoria (read Melbourne) – the second hottest market – also experiencing strong growth:

ScreenHunter_6566 Mar. 13 11.37

According to the ABS, investor finance commitments in New South Wales in January were 25.5% higher than January 2014. New South Wales investor loans were also up by 34.0% in rolling annual terms in the year to January 2015, well above the national average increase of 24.2%.

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Further, as at January 2015, investors accounted for an astonishing 58.2% of total housing finance commitments (excluding refinancings) in New South Wales (Sydney) – a new record. Victoria’s (read Melbourne’s) share of investor mortgages also rose to 48.3%, which was also a record share for that state:

ScreenHunter_6567 Mar. 13 11.40

Putting the two charts together for New South Wales (Sydney) yields the following marvel:

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ScreenHunter_6568 Mar. 13 11.41

Hello APRA. Anybody home?

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.