Loans to first home buyers grew strongly in August: ABS data
The number of loans to first home buyers rose strongly in August from July, helped by moves from the New South Wales and Victorian governments to encourage first home owners into the market.
The ratio of the number of first home buyer loans to the total number of owner occupier loans also increased strongly, said the latest data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Other features of the ABS data were:
- In trend terms, the number of commitments for owner occupied housing finance rose 1.0% in August 2017.
- In trend terms, the number of commitments for the purchase of new dwellings rose 2.1%, the number of commitments for the construction of dwellings rose 1.5% and the number of commitments for the purchase of established dwellings rose 0.9%.
- In original terms, the number of first home buyer commitments as a percentage of total owner occupied housing finance commitments rose to 17.2% in August 2017 from 16.6% in July 2017.
Also, the trend estimate for the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions rose 0.6%.
Seasonally adjusted, the total value of home finance commitments excluding alterations and additions rose 2.1%.
ANZ Research said in a note that the though “overall demand for housing appears to still be solid, although the growth in first home buyer demand is unlikely to be sustainable given ongoing affordability issues”.
It also said finance for the construction or purchase of new buildings continues to rise, posing some upside risk to our construction forecasts.