Lending indicators

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This release is about new borrower-accepted finance commitments for housing, personal and business loans

Reference period
August 2023
Released
3/10/2023

Key statistics

In August 2023, new loan commitments (seasonally adjusted):

  • rose 2.2% for housing
  • rose 6.1% for personal fixed term loans
  • rose 17.2% for business construction (a typically volatile series) and fell 0.5% in trend terms
  • rose 10.8% for business purchase of property (a typically volatile series) and rose 0.8% in trend terms

Value of new borrower-accepted loan commitments (seasonally adjusted)

   Aug-2023 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Households
 Housing24.822.2-9.4
  Owner Occupier (a)16.072.6-12.5
  Investor (a)8.751.6-3.0
 Personal
  Fixed term loans2.466.18.1
Businesses
 Construction2.0917.2-5.6
 Purchase of Property5.6910.8-7.4
  1. Loan commitments for owner occupier, investor housing and personal fixed term loans exclude refinancing.

Housing finance: First home buyers

The number and value of new loan commitments to first home buyers has not been published this month due to data reporting issues. These series are temporarily suspended while the ABS and APRA work with data providers to resolve the issues as soon as possible. Please take caution when using the previous 12 months of first home buyer data.

Important data quality notes

Seasonal adjustment methods

The ABS regularly undertakes an extensive review of seasonally adjusted Lending Indicators series to ensure that the seasonal adjustment process continues to produce robust, high quality data. Similar reviews are regularly undertaken across the ABS economic statistics program. Past issues of Lending Indicators contain more information on methods changes that were made during those periods. Further information can also be found here: Methods changes during the COVID-19 period

Following the reversion to concurrent seasonal adjustment from the October 2022 release, revisions to historical data will occur each month.

Treatment of Buy Now Pay Later products in Personal finance

The ABS has identified some inconsistencies in how Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) loan products are being reported. We are working with APRA, the Reserve Bank and lenders to ensure reporting aligns with reporting guidance and definitions, and is consistent across different lenders. Revisions to Personal finance data are expected when this is resolved.

Personal finance data quality

Some inconsistencies have been identified in certain smaller Personal finance series, namely in lending for the purchase of other (non-road) vehicles, for household goods, for travel & holidays as well as internal (same lender) refinancing. While these series continue to be published, they should be used with caution. The ABS is working with APRA and data providers to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.

  

Housing finance

In August 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for total housing rose 2.2% to $24.8b, after a fall of 1.1% in July. It was 9.4% lower compared to a year ago.
  • for owner-occupier housing rose 2.6% to $16.1b but was 12.5% lower compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing rose 1.6% to $8.8b but was 3.0% lower compared to a year ago
  1. All series exclude refinancing

In August 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of external refinancing:

  • for total housing fell 3.9% to $20.6b but was 12.4% higher compared to a year ago
  • for owner-occupier housing fell 3.3% to $14.0b but was 12.4% higher compared to a year ago
  • for investor housing fell 5.0% to $6.6b but was 12.3% higher compared to a year ago

Personal finance

In August 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for total fixed term personal finance rose 6.1%, after a rise of 6.0% in July
  • for road vehicles rose 5.9%
  • for personal investment rose 8.2%
  1. Any missing data points in the series above are not available for publication.
  1. Any missing data points in the series above are not available for publication.

Business finance

In August 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for construction finance rose 17.2%, after a fall of 21.8% in July. In trend terms, it fell 0.5%.
  • for the purchase of property rose 10.8%, after a fall of 1.2% in July. In trend terms, it rose 0.8%.

These series can have volatile month-to-month movements as they are strongly affected by small numbers of high value loans.

  1. Any missing data points in the series above are not available for publication.

Housing finance (detailed)

Value of new loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)

   Aug-2023 ($b)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Owner occupier
 Total housing (a)16.072.6-12.5
  Construction of dwellings1.521.4-33.7
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings0.92-1.0-7.1
  Purchase of existing dwellings12.482.5-9.5
 First home buyersnpnpnp
Investor
 Total housing (a)8.751.6-3.0

Number of new loan commitments by purpose (seasonally adjusted)

   Aug-2023 (No.)Month percent change (%)Year percent change (%)
Owner occupier
 Total housing (a)
  Construction of dwellings2 6179.0-35.6
  Purchase of newly erected dwellings1 6043.1-8.2
  Purchase of existing dwellings21 1831.8-8.5
 First home buyersnpnpnp
Investor
 Total housing (a)
  1. Housing includes loan commitments for dwellings, purchase of residential land and for alterations and additions.
  2. There is no seasonally adjusted or trend data available for the number of owner occupiers or investors for total housing as the data was collected from July 2019.
  3. The "np" marker means that data item is "not published" this month (see note above pertaining to suppression of First Home Buyer data).

 

In August 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for owner occupiers rose 2.6%, after a fall of 1.6% in July
  • for investors rose 1.6%, after a fall of 0.3% in July

  

In August 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • for the purchase of existing dwellings rose 2.5% but was 9.5% lower compared to a year ago
  • for the construction of new dwellings rose 1.4% but was 33.7% lower compared to a year ago
  • for the purchase of new dwellings fell 1.0% and was 7.1% lower compared to a year ago
  1. For periods prior to July 2019, statistics on owner occupier commitments for residential land are modelled using data about the total value of commitments for residential land.
  2. Users can hide/unhide series in the graph by clicking the legend above (e.g. toggle the "purchase of existing dwellings" series for a closer look at the other purposes of owner occupier lending).

 

In August 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms for owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in Victoria rose 4.0%, in South Australia rose 12.9%, in New South Wales rose 2.1%, in Queensland rose 2.9%, in Western Australia rose 4.9%, in Tasmania rose 17.9% and in the Northern Territory rose 30.4%
  • in the Australian Capital Territory fell 3.3%

The Tasmania, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory series are smaller and typically more volatile.

  

In August 2023 in seasonally adjusted terms for investor housing, the value of new loan commitments:

  • in Western Australia rose 14.1%, in New South Wales rose 1.3%, in South Australia rose 5.2% and in Victoria rose 0.2%
  • in Queensland fell 4.2%, in the Australian Capital Territory fell 8.1%, in the Northern Territory fell 14.7% and in Tasmania fell 3.5% 

The Tasmania, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory series are smaller and typically more volatile.

In August 2023, in original terms:

  • the value of total new variable rate loan commitments funded in the month rose 8.9%
  • the value of total new fixed rate loan commitments funded in the month fell 12.9%
  1. A loan is considered funded once any portion of the funds is made available for the borrower to draw down according to the terms of the contract. This will occur after there is a borrower-accepted commitment to provide finance. Due to this timing difference, the value of loans funded in the month shown in this graph will generally not reconcile with the value of new borrower-accepted commitments for the month shown in the other graphs and download tables.
  2. Total fixed rate and total variable rate housing loans include their respective first home buyer loan components.

In August 2023 in original terms, average loan sizes for owner-occupier dwellings (including construction, purchase of new dwellings and existing dwellings):

  • fell 1.4% at the national level from $593k to $585k. It was however, 21.8% higher compared to the pre-pandemic average seen in February 2020.
  1. Please note that while the series graphed above are joined between the available data points, there may be missing data points in between which are not available for publication

First home buyers

The number and value of new loan commitments to first home buyers has not been published this month due to data reporting issues. These series are temporarily suspended while the ABS and APRA work with data providers to resolve the issues as soon as possible. Please take caution when using the previous 12 months of first home buyer data.

Data downloads

Housing Finance - Total

Data files

   

Housing Finance - Owner-occupiers

Data files

   

Housing Finance - Investors

Data files

  

Housing Finance - First home buyers

Data files

    

Table 26. Households; Housing finance; Non-residents; New loan commitments; Numbers and values

   

Personal Finance

Data files

   

Business Finance

Data files

Data cubes

Series ID concordance mapping

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5601.0.

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