Today’s housing finance data for February, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), posted a seasonally adjusted bounce in overall housing finance commitments, although the trend in mortgage growth continues to weaken.
According to the ABS, the total number of owner-occupier finance commitments (excluding refinancings) rebounded by a seasonally adjusted 2.5% over the month to be up 3.2% over the year (see below charts).
In a similar vein, the value of investor finance commitments rebounded by 4.1% in February but was down by 7.3% over the year (see next chart).
The annual share of total loans going to investors (excluding refinancings) also fell to 48.3% in February from a peak of 51.6% in July:
First home buyer (FHB) owner-occupied demand also rebounded in February (due mostly to seasonality), up by 16.3% over the month and by 1.4% over the year, but represented just 14.7% of total owner-occupied finance commitments (see below charts).
Meanwhile, the average loan size fell by 4.1% in February but was up 7.8% over the year, with the trend falling sharply on a 3-month moving average basis:
Finally, the below chart shows that the trend pick-up in the value of owner-occupied housing demand is only partly offsetting the sharp fall in investor demand:
Overall trend housing finance growth continues to slow sharply which, other things equal, should mean that house price growth nationally should also continue to weaken.
