Today’s housing finance data for October, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), posted a small fall in owner-occupied finance commitments, with investor finance commitments crashing.
According to the ABS, total owner-occupier finance commitments (excluding refinancings) fell by a seasonally adjusted 1.2% over the month to be up by 4.1% over the year (see below charts).
By comparison, the value of investor finance commitments tanked by 6.1% in October and were down by 9.2% over the year (see next chart).
The annual share of total loans going to investors (excluding refinancings) also fell to 50.3% in October from 51.5% in July:
Meanwhile, first home buyer (FHB) owner-occupied demand was weak in October at just 15.1% of total owner-occupied finance commitments. They also fell by 2.8% in October and by 9.1% over the year (see below charts).
Meanwhile, the average loan size rose by 0.8% in October and was up 13.8% over the year, and remains in a strong uptrend on a 3-month moving average basis:
Finally, the below chart shows that the pick-up in owner-occupied housing demand is only partly offsetting the sharp fall in investor demand:
Looks like the great Australian investor bubble is bursting.
