Mortgage market activity drops 50.4% nationally: CoreLogic

According to CoreLogic’s Mortgage Index, mortgage market activity dropped across all six states, resulting in an overall national drop of 50.4 per cent for the week ending 15 January 2023.

Leading the states in declines was NSW, which dropped by 57.8 per cent, leaving it with an index value of 39.2. This was closely followed by Victoria which saw a decline of 49.8 per cent and an index value of 52.3.

Tasmania and Western Australia were tied for declines, both at 49.2 per cent with index values of 30.8 and 100.2, respectively. 

South Australia and Queensland followed with declines of 45.4 per cent (index value at 40.9) and 43.8 per cent with an index value of 58.0.

Home values for the capital cities also dropped in four states for the month leading up to 15 January 2023, with Brisbane leading at a decline of 1.2 per cent, followed by Sydney by 1.1 per cent, Melbourne by 0.9 per cent, and Adelaide by 0.6 per cent. Perth was the only capital city to record a rise for this period, with values increasing slightly by 0.1 per cent.

Lending data reveals widespread declines

The latest lending data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for a variety of loans in November last year has shown drops in almost all recorded categories.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the ABS data found that loan commitments dropped 3.7 per cent for housing, 1.3 per cent for personal fixed term home loans, 62.1 per cent for business construction (a notably volatile series), and 1.7 per cent in trend terms along with a decline of 0.7 per cent for business purchase of property.

In terms of housing finance specifically, the data revealed that total housing fell by 3.7 per cent to $24.7 billion, preceded by a 2.8 per cent fall in October, which was a 24.3 per cent drop when compared to the same period in 2021.

Owner-occupier housing fell 3.8 per cent to $16.4 billion, 24.8 per cent lower than the year before, and investor housing fell 3.6 per cent to $8.3 billion, leaving it 23.2 per cent lower in annual terms.

Refinancing was the only category to not experience any declines, increasing by 8.2 per cent to an all-time high of $19.5 billion for total housing.

[RELATED: Lending falls amid refinancing boom]