Average mortgage size leaps in Queensland: Pete Wargent

EXPERT OBSERVATION

 

The average mortgage size in Queensland in the final quarter of 2018 took a leap from $424,000 to above $450,000, according to AFG's latest mortgage index.

 

Evidently more southern state types are taking their borrowing capacity north to the Sunshine State. 

 

Overall lending volumes through AFG brokers were way down on a year earlier at a shade over $13 billion for the quarter.

The prior year comparative figure was $14.8 billion, some 12 per cent higher.

 

Major lenders continue to leak market share at under 58 per cent of lodgement volumes, down from 78 per cent in 2013. 

 

With the share of investors in the market well down - and the share of interest-only lending also at the lowest level across the data series - a natural consequence of this is borrowers redirecting their borrowing capacity at larger home loans. 

 

Thanks to Queensland borrowers the average loan size nationally hit a fresh high level in the fourth quarter of 2018 at $509,162, up from $499,193 a year earlier.

The ABS has noted it has discontinued its figures on implied average loan sizes due to loan-splitting potentially understating the results. 

According to Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) research only around 1 in 10 borrowers use their maximum borrowing capacity or something close to it, helping to explain how the average loan size can now be at a record high.