Home Loans QoQ

Home Loans QoQ is the home-loans part of Lending Indicators, the ABS Economic and Financial Statistics collection on new lending commitments. It reports new loan commitments for dwellings (firm offers accepted by borrowers) as seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter % change in number and value. Coverage is a census of authorised deposit-taking institutions (banks and credit unions) and registered lenders above fixed credit thresholds, capturing about 95% of lending. It sums owner-occupier and investor dwelling loans for construction and purchases, excludes refinancing (new loans replacing old loans) and land, and has no target level.

Publication is quarterly at the start of the 2nd month after the reference quarter, at 11:30am Sydney time. Each release adds personal and business lending, state splits, owner versus investor, 1st-home status, lender type, data tables, a media release and a methodology page. Revisions are included as they occur from lender corrections and re-estimated seasonal factors (patterns updated each quarter), with lender reclassification from the month of change. The release is read directionally only: a rise means stronger new borrowing and a fall means weaker borrowing, with focus on streaks and turning points.

Headline moves with borrower type and loan purpose, while some loan types sit outside the total.

• Owner-occupier: loans for homes the borrower will live in, capturing demand for living space.
• Investor: loans for dwellings not lived in, including rentals and holiday homes, capturing rental demand.
• Dwelling purpose: construction of new dwellings plus purchases of new and existing dwellings summed in the headline.
• Excluded series: internal and external refinancing (replacing old loans), residential land and alterations sit outside the headline.

In December Quarter 2024, the 1st quarterly release published February 12, 2025, dwelling number fell 0.4% to 132,082 while value rose 1.4% to $87.2b. Owner-occupier number rose 2.2% to 83,206 and value rose 4.2% to $54.8b, while investor number fell 4.5% to 48,876 and value fell 2.9% to $32.4b. 1st-home buyer number, for buyers with no prior dwelling, rose 1.3% to 29,788. ABS called it the 1st fall for investors since March Quarter 2023, while other new home loans rose for a 3rd straight quarter.

1. Coverage: Lenders above set credit cutoffs report 1 aggregate per category to APRA (Australian Prudential Regulation Authority), which passes data to ABS for processing. Cutoffs are $3.0b for housing, $2.0b for business and $0.5b for personal, capturing about 95% of lending with response near 100%.
2. Quarterly level: Quarterly level sums new borrower-accepted commitments in the quarter as a number (count) and a value (A$ billions).
3. Seasonal adjustment and trend: Seasonal adjustment (removal of seasonal patterns) uses concurrent factors re-estimated each quarter, including Easter effects, with states adjusted separately. Trend is a Henderson-weighted moving average (smoothed path) of the seasonally adjusted series.
4. Headline QoQ %: Headline QoQ % equals 100 x (Qt minus Qt-1) divided by Qt-1 on the seasonally adjusted series. For example, $86.0b to $87.2b gives about +1.4%, and 132,613 to 132,082 gives about -0.4%.