Investment Lending for Homes

It measures new borrower-accepted commitments (approved investor home loans the borrower accepted) for non-owner-occupied homes. It sits in Lending Indicators (catalogue 5601.0) within the Economic and Financial Statistics (EFS) collection running from the July 2019 period.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) compiles it from lender reports collected through the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). Reports cover banks, building societies, credit unions and other large lenders, with a $3.0b housing line targeting about 95% of lending. History is modelled back to 2002 and read with caution. It counts promises to lend, not money paid, homes sold or homes built, and dwellings exclude refinancing (new loans replacing old ones), including holiday homes.

Lenders report commitments accepted during each quarter, and the ABS publishes results early in the 2nd month after, at 11:30am Sydney time. The series is quarterly from the December quarter 2024 period, after a monthly era ending with September 2024.

Each release also shows owner-occupier housing, first-home-buyer splits, personal and business lending and state detail. It adds lender types with downloadable tables and graphs. Past values revise as lenders resubmit fixes and seasonal (calendar-effect) factors update; markets read the smoothed level with quarterly and yearly % change.

Investor loans fund homes the borrower does not live in; 3 dwelling parts form the main total, and land plus alterations sit outside it.

• Construction of dwellings: loans to build new homes, including conversions that create a new home, such as a warehouse turned into apartments, excluding refinancing.
• Purchase of newly erected dwellings: loans for brand-new homes, including off-the-plan (bought before completion) buys, excluding refurbished homes and refinancing.
• Purchase of existing dwellings: loans for previously lived-in homes, usually the largest driver of moves, excluding refinancing.
• Residential land: loans for vacant housing plots, counted in total housing but not in dwellings.
• Alterations, additions and repairs: loans for upgrades to existing homes, also outside the dwellings total.

In May 2021 (published July 2, 2021) investor housing hit $9.13b, up 13.3% on the month and 116.0% on the year, far above owner-occupier growth. Total housing reached $32.56b, up 4.9% on the month and 95.4% on the year, while owner-occupiers hit $23.44b, up 1.9% and 88.4%, an all-time high. The rise was concentrated in New South Wales (+12.1%) and Victoria (+17.4%), led by purchases of existing dwellings. The 116.0% yearly jump showed base effects after a May 2020 trough last seen in November 2002, while trend stood suspended since March 2020.

1. Scope and report: Lenders send APRA 1 total per category for the quarter through housing form ARF 743.0. No loan-level detail is collected.
2. Aggregate: The ABS sums reports into national and state totals; headline investor value (V) and number (N) strip out refinancing. For example, 2 lenders reporting $2.0b (3000 loans) and $1.0b (1500 loans) give V of $3.0b across 4500 loans.
3. Seasonally adjust: Calendar-effect patterns are removed with factors re-estimated each quarter, allowing for Easter, trading days and leap days, while rate-change shocks stay in. For example, $3.0b divided by a 1.02 factor gives about $2.941b.
4. Derive moves: Quarterly change equals (this quarter / last quarter - 1) × 100, and yearly change uses the same quarter last year. For example, $2.941b against $2.800b last quarter gives about +5.0%.
5. Trend: The underlying path comes from a Henderson-weighted moving average (smoothing formula) over all but the last six months. The final six months use stand-in values, so trend points revise as data arrive.