The total number of seasonally adjusted loans to owner occupiers for the construction and purchase of new homes increased by 21.8% in the Australian Capital Territory, 14.9% in Queensland and 7% in New South Wales and the Northern Territory.
Other regions saw the number of loans fall. They were down by 1.2% in Victoria, 1.7% in South Australia, 11% in Western Australia and 13.3% in Tasmania.
‘Housing finance outcomes presented a mixed bag of results in the month of February 2013, but overall the changes have been in the right direction,’ said Housing Industry Association’s chief economist Harley Dale.
‘We are almost back to the lending levels of October last year, which were then lost when a tentative recovery failed to be sustained. But we’re still not firmly on the path back to the healthy levels of new home lending which would be consistent with the strong residential construction recovery the economy and population requires,’ he explained.
In terms of owner occupiers, the aggregate number of loans for the construction and purchase of new homes increased by 1.2% in February while loans for established homes net of refinancing was up by 2%.
Looking at lending to investors, finance for established dwellings has been rising fairly consistently and the value of loans increased by 3.3% over the three months to February 2013.
‘However, investor lending into new dwellings fell by 3.2% in the February 2013 quarter, although the overall profile appears to have followed a path of improvement since the middle of 2012,’ added Dale.
