Lending to Households and Businesses in Australia Shows an Upward Movement, Jul 2019 Figures.

KEY POINTS

In seasonally adjusted terms, new lending commitments to households rose 3.9% in July 2019, following a 1.9% rise in June.

The rise in lending to households was driven by owner occupier dwellings excluding refinancing (up 5.3%), refinancing of household loans (up 5.4%) and investment dwellings excluding refinancing (up 4.7%).

New lending for owner occupier dwellings excluding refinancing fell 8.3% on July 2018 and new lending for investment dwellings excluding refinancing fell 20.4% on July 2018.

In trend terms, new lending commitments for owner occupier dwellings excluding refinancing rose 0.7% and investment dwellings excluding refinancing rose 0.3% in July 2019.

There were rises in the number of new lending commitments to owner occupier first home buyers (1.3%) and owner occupier non-first home buyers (4.0%) in seasonally adjusted terms. Growth in the number of non-first home buyers was greater than the growth in the number of first home buyers for the first time since December 2018.

Lending to households for refinancing rose 5.4% in seasonally adjusted terms. Refinancing of owner occupier dwellings was the largest contributor to the rise in July (up 6.3%), followed by refinancing of investment dwellings (up 3.5%) and refinancing of personal loans (up 4.3%).

Personal finance excluding refinancing fell 2.6% in seasonally adjusted terms during July 2019 and is down 8.9% from July 2018.

In trend terms, the value of lending commitments to businesses fell 1.3% in July 2019, but is up 1.5% from July 2018.

Source: ABS