Lending has risen by almost one-fifth over the last 12 months despite a drop in May, according to data released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The new figures show that the total value of new housing loans fell 1.7% in May to $28.8 billion.
The results were consistent across all buyer types, with lending to investors down 1.3% in May to $10.7 billion, owner-occupier loans (excluding first home buyers) down 1.6% to $12.9 billion, and first home buyer loans down 2.9% to $5.2 billion.
Owner-occupier lending rose in Queensland (up 0.8%), WA (2.6%), and Tasmania (9.2%), but fell 7.9% in NSW, 2.4% in Victoria, 1.7% in South Australia, 6.3% in the NT and 1.4% in the ACT.
ABS head of finance statistics Fiona Cotsell remarked that despite the falls across all sectors in May, the value of new home loans has still risen 18% over the past 12 months.
“Loans to investors have continued to see stronger growth than owner-occupiers over this period”, Cotsell said.
Since May 2023, the value of new loans to investors has trended upwards across most states and territories. The largest rises were in New South Wales (up 24.8%), Queensland (up 48.2%) and Western Australia (up 73.9%).
In May, the value of new loans to investors in Queensland reached an all-time high of $2.4 billion, exceeding Victoria for the third consecutive month.
According to Cotsell, this is mainly due to investors taking out larger loans in the sunshine state compared to this time last year.
“We saw the average loan size for investors in Queensland increase by 14.3% since May 2023, from $508,000 to $580,000”, she said, adding that comparatively, the average loan size in Victoria fell 3.2% over the same period, from $584,000 to $566,000.
