Home Lending Up

Home Lending Up

Home lending is up, with Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing October had the first year-on-year growth in new mortgage commitments in almost 18 months.

The 5.4% increase was driven by a combination of owner-occupiers, first-home buyers and investors returning to the market.

Owner-occupier loans rose by 5.6%, investor lending was up by 5% and first-home buyer lending rose by 6.4%.

The ABS figures show new home construction loans to investors, increased by 17.2%.

Eliza Owen of CoreLogic says that would be a result of investors buying off-the-plan apartments.

“Owner-occupiers, if they’re hoping for something to settle into, might be more apprehensive around a blow-out in the cost of construction and timelines,” she says.

Ratecity.com.au research director, Sally Tindall says refinancing continued to drop in October, reaching its lowest level since the start of rate increases.

She says in the past 18 months more than $344 billion in mortgages were refinanced across more than 670,000 loans but that had now slowed.