An aggregator yesterday reported it had achieved its largest quarterly lodgement result from April to June at almost $17bn – a 30% increase on the same time last year.
According to AFG CEO David Bailey, it has been “very interesting” to see where some of the mortgage activity came from as consumer behaviour wildly shifted over the three month period.
“Ending the previous quarter, refinancing activity was extremely strong. As some of the refinance incentives from the majors wound down, the market responded in a different manner with a flurry of activity for first home buyers aided by the various government incentives, and an increase in upgraders from those more confident in their financial position,” he explained.
First home buyer numbers surged to 21% in June, up from 12% in April whereas refinancing activity peaked at 38% in April before coming to rest at 23% upon the close of June.
Upgraders increased from 36% at the beginning of the quarter to 42% at its termination.
The AFG Index also emphasised that the major banks’ reclaiming of market share seems to have peaked at 70% earlier in the quarter before settling back down to 60% in the month of June.
“Extremely competitive offers from the major lenders including cash incentives of up to $4,000 led to a drop in market share for the non-majors. However, processing bottlenecks began to impact turnaround times for the majors by the close of the quarter and the non-majors have begun to take back some ground,” said Bailey.
“ANZ was the big winner among the majors, from 9.92% market share last quarter, rising as high as 36.87% in May driven by cash back offers and low fixed rate products. They increased their market share of fixed rate products to 33.66%.”
Conversely, Westpac’s market share slipped from 20.14% at the close of Q3 to 12.38% at the end of June due its struggles around turnaround times.
