Owner occupier lending drops 1.5% in October
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9/12/2009 4:00:00 PM
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The total number of seasonally adjusted loans for owner occupiers, excluding refinancing, dropped by 1.5% in October 2009 but was up by 37.4% compared to October 2008
The biggest seasonally adjusted decline in the total number of owner occupier loans in the month occurred in NSW (a drop of 5%), followed by South Australia (3.8%), ACT (1%), Queensland (0.6%), and Victoria (0.4%).
The total number of loans increased by 0.8% in Western Australia, the Northern Territory (7.9%) and by 6.2% in Tasmania.
According to the Housing Industry Association (HIA), lending to home buyers to build or purchase new dwellings defied the increase in interest rates in October but was blunted by continued weakness in lending for rental investment
Loans for the construction of new dwellings and the purchase of newly-built homes combined increased by 5.7% following a rise in September. New housing loans increased in 13 out of the last 14 months.
Mortgage Choice CEO, Michael Russell, said, "The real winner from this data is the construction industry, which will be relieved to see the number of construction loans continuing to grow."
"8,133 new housing finance commitments for the construction of dwellings in October is almost double the 4,185 we saw at the same time last year, and it is the highest number recorded since August 1994," he added.
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