Housing finance crash signals more property pain

Tuesday 9 April 2019

Yesterday’s Lending to households and businesses release from the ABS revealed that total mortgage lending (excluding refinancings) recovered slightly in February, but still tanked by 19% over the year in trend terms, driven by an epic 27% crash in investor commitments, whereas owner-occupied commitments also fell by 15%:

As shown above, annual investor mortgage growth is a whisker above the GFC low, which was quickly followed by a sharp V-shaped recovery.

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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.