Continued slight increase in ADI resident loans: APRA

Even in the lead-up to the highly anticipated December central bank cash-rate announcement, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) November authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) data showed continued home loan growth, albeit slightly.

With the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) having increased the official cash rate since May, the loan growth is noteworthy as an indicator of borrower sentiment towards year’s end.

Overall, the total value of November ADI owner-occupied housing collectively was $1,377.7 billion, with investment housing loans amounting to $673.8 billion, APRA data has revealed.

Specifically for the big four, the monthly residential owner-occupied increase continued, yet still far from its peak of 11.7 per cent in February 2022, as APRA recorded earlier.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) still holds the largest share of owner-occupied mortgages on its loan book, reporting $354.6 billion, plus $175.3 billion in investment housing loans.

Next was Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac) reporting $286.1 billion in owner-occupied loans, plus investment housing loans of $154.5 billion.

National Australia Bank (NAB) reported owner-occupied housing loans for November at $196.4 billion, and housing investment loans of $107.6 billion.

The remaining big-four bank, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) had on its loan book $178.5 billion for owner-occupied housing and $90.7 billion in housing investment loans.

Pre-festive season loan growth

The November APRA data precedes RBA’s much anticipated December 6 cash-rate announcement, which would see official cash rate by 25bps to 3.10 per cent.

The December announcement would follow on from three previous 25-bp increases since May, and 50-bp rises announced in June, July, August, and September.

The move to increase the cash rate comes as the RBA attempts to curb rising inflation.

APRA – no comment

Interestingly, the regulator has elected to not provide any commentary on the latest November data, stating: “APRA is not providing commentary on the overall industry performance and insights into observed trends (Highlights PDF) for the MADIS publication (November 2022 reference period).”

“APRA welcomes any feedback from users on the format and approach to the monthly publication, including whether some form of additional commentary would be helpful.”

Mortgage Business contacted APRA and provided such feedback.

The December 2022 release of ADI data is due on 31 January 2023, APRA has confirmed.

[Related: Resident loans continue lending growth but slower: APRA]