First home buyer bribes mask weak housing finance trend

Friday 8 December 2017

Today’s housing finance data for October, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), posted a fall in lending to owner-occupiers but an increase in lending to investors.

According to the ABS, the total number of owner-occupier finance commitments (excluding refinancings) fell by 0.8% in October in seasonally adjusted terms but was up 9.0% over the year:

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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.