Housing finance crash signals more house price falls

Tuesday 14 May 2019

Monday’s Lending to households and businesses release from the ABS revealed that total mortgage lending (excluding refinancings) fell sharply in March, and have 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 16%:

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.