First-home buyer activity in the housing finance market fell heavily last year. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released yesterday, the number of first-home buyer loans fell from 10,264 in December 2011 to 6557 in December last year - a 36 per cent fall.As a proportion of total housing finance activity, first-home buyers fell from 21.1 per cent to 14.9 per cent over the same period.This fall has been attributed to changes in first-home owner grant schemes in several states last year, where governments have restricted the grants to the purchase of newly built houses.Overall, the housing finance figures show a 1.5 per cent fall in the number of owner-occupied houses financed in December (the third consecutive month when numbers have fallen) and a 2.7 per cent fall in the value of owner-occupied housing finance commitments. Lending to investors fell 2.4 per cent. The only bright spot was that finance for the construction of dwellings rose 1.2 per cent and finance for the purchase of new dwellings rose 1.9 per cent.Fixed-rate lending accounted for 13.6 per cent of the total. The average loan size was A$308,300.