Just what the Reserve Bank wanted to see, another key housing statistic revealing a weak trend.
According to figures yesterday from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, home loan commitments rose just 1% in August, down from the revised 1.8% increase in July (1.7% increase originally reported).
It was the first back to back rise for 14 months.
The graph shows the seasonally adjusted line stabilising in a trough, suggesting we could see an upturn in home loan approvals in coming months, if there’s not another rise in interest rates.
The 1% rise took the number of owner-occupied housing, seasonally adjusted, to 47,540, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
Finance for the construction of dwellings fell 1% in the month, while purchases of new dwellings fell 2% as the share of purchases by first home buyers fell to a six year low of 15.5%, down from the peak of 28.5% early last year.
That’s where the Reserve Bank would like it to be because they are the group of borrowers most under pressure from rate rises, although the central bank said last month that so far there had not been any increase in home loans to first home buyers going bad.
The only sign of strength in the data was purchase of established dwellings, which rose 1.4% in the month.
Total housing finance by value fell by 1.3% in August, seasonally adjusted, to $20.147 billion.
Loans for investment property also dropped 3.9% in August to $6.5 billion.
These figures won’t have any impact on the thinking at the Reserve Bank except to confirm that the housing sector is just ticking over, but not threatening to soar.
August private dwelling building approvals fell, according to the figures from the ABS last week and the Housing Industry Association has forecast a downturn in new home construction over the next year or so.
