Owner-occupied housing loans made up the greatest lending share during March, according to statistics released yesterday by the Australian Prudential Regulations Authority.
There has been small but steady growth in home lending over the month, with the overall balance of owner-occupied and investment loans up from $1,231 billion in February to $1,236 billion in March.
Ninety-two per cent of all lending was housing related in March, with 42% of total bank lending for owner-occupation and 22% for investment housing.
The big four increased their market share from 84.3% in February to 84.4% in March.
CBA holds the largest book with $483,837m of gross loans and advances during March, followed by
Westpac ($429,778m),
NAB ($363,311m) and
ANZ ($318,269m). This is the same order as in February.
Westpac continues to hold the greatest proportion of investment and owner-occupied loans.
Amongst the smaller lenders,
Bank of Queensland, HSBC and Bank of China have the largest proportions of investment loans, of which 33.6% is for investment homes.
The Reserve Bank of Australia also released yesterday its credit aggregates for March, showing housing lending grew 0.5% in March, giving an annual rate of 5.9%.
Total loans on book for housing were $1,351 billion in March.
Digital Finance Analytics principal Martin North points out that APRA’s figure of $1,236 billion just relates to the banks only, so the non-bank sector makes up $115bn, indicating some growth.
