There are faint signs of a potential recovery in demand for investment home loans, according to official data published by APRA.The latest quarterly statistics reporting the aggregate property exposures of the nation's 31 largest banks and credit unions shows that investment mortgage approvals rose by A$2.9 billion or 10.9 per cent in the three months to the end of June.The positive result follows a dismal March quarter when total loan approvals fell by a record $4.5 billion or 14.5 per cent.The value of new residential loans approved to investors in the June quarter was $29.3 billion compared to $26.4 billion in the three months to the end March.While the June quarter recovery might indicate that the slide in investment activity has bottomed, approvals remain well below the $34 billion recorded in the corresponding period in 2017.However, the upward trend is likely to have continued in the current quarter after APRA's decision to relax restrictions on investment lending since the start of July.A string of lenders including HSBC and Macquarie were freed from lending caps imposed by the regulator that limited growth on their investment mortgage books to ten per cent.Mutual banks such as the South Australian-based People's Bank confirmed in August that they were embarking on "aggressive" campaigns to market loans to investors.APRA's tightening of lending rules on interest-only mortgages in the last three years has cut deeply into the volumes of most leading lenders.The country's 31 largest lenders approved $117.5 billion worth of investment loans in the year to the end of June, a slide of $16.6 billion or 12.4 per cent on the previous 12-month period.The total value of investor loans made by the same lenders stood at $544 billion at the end of June, which was 2 per cent higher than at the same time last year.Owner-occupier loan approvals grew by $5 billion or 8.3 per cent in the June quarter and exceeded the level recorded in the same period in 2017.Lenders approved $65.2 billion worth of new lending to owner-occupiers in the June quarter compared to $64.6 billion in previous corresponding period.