In July 2013, the seasonally adjusted number of housing finance commitments for both new and established owner-occupied housing increased in by 2.3% in New South Wales, by 3.3% in Victoria, by 0.1% in South Australia, by 1.8% in Western Australia, by 1.9% in Tasmania, by 3.6% in the Northern Territory and by 3.5% in the Australian Capital Territory. Lending fell by 0.9% in Queensland over the same period.
Overall there were 8,396 loans to owner occupiers for the purchase and construction of new homes during the month of July 2013, the strongest monthly result since early 2010.
This was the third consecutive month that the lending for new homes has increased which continued the steady upward trend that has been evident since the market reached a cyclical low in early 2011, according to the Housing Industry Association, the voice of Australia’s residential building industry.
The data shows that in the month of July, the number of loans to owner occupiers for the construction and purchase of new owner occupied homes increased by 0.7% and was 15.5% higher than in July 2012.
Within this the number loans for the purchase of new homes increased by 5.9% in the month to a level 52.1% higher than the same month in 2012, while the number of loans for construction fell by 2.1% to be only 1.1% higher than a year earlier.
‘This is a good result, but the lack of strong upward momentum for the construction component over 2013 to date is disappointing,’ said HIA economist, Geordan Murray.
He pointed out that the aggregate value of lending for housing increased by 4.5% in the July 2013 quarter. ‘There has been strengthening demand from both owner occupiers and investors, which in itself is encouraging, but growth has been driven primarily by lending to those purchasing existing homes,’ he explained.
The data also shows that the value of lending to owner occupiers for construction and the purchase of new homes increased by 2.5% while lending to investors purchasing new homes increased by 3.3% in the July quarter of 2013.
‘Despite this, the total increase in lending for new homes only contributed 0.5% to the quarterly growth,’ added Murray.
