Total home lending for owner occupiers posted a modest gain over the first quarter of 2007, according to figures released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The ABS figures show that the number of loans for owner occupiers increased by 1.3 per cent to 63,335 in the month of March 2007 and rose by 1.6 per cent over the entire quarter.
On the investment front, a 14.6 per cent rise in lending for construction in March masked a softer quarter overall. Over the first three months of 2007, lending for investment in new rental stock fell by 2.2 per cent to be down by a sharp 25.1 per cent on the March 2006 quarter.
Building industry body HIA commented that the lending update for the construction of both owner occupier and investor dwellings highlighted a weak first quarter.
HIA Chief Economist Harley Dale said that, while the established market is picking up a little bit of steam, indicators for new construction have remained soft over the early months of this year.
"The number of first home buyer loans did increase in March and the proportion of first home buyers lifted above the 18 per cent mark for the first time in a year", Mr Dale said.
On a state by state basis, the total number of seasonally adjusted owner occupied housing commitments increased by 17.8 per cent in the Australian Capital Territory and by 9.6 per cent in the Northern Territory.
Modest rises were recorded for Queensland (up 1.5 per cent), Western Australia(up 1.2 per cent) and New South Wales, up 0.5 per cent. The number of loans fell by 1.5 per cent in South Australia and Tasmania, and by 0.4 per cent in Victoria.
