Mortgage market still a two horse race

Any efforts by ANZ and National Australia Bank to rev up their home loan origination businesses to catch the current growth wave are yet to spark.

NAB reported growth in home loans for October 2009, at 0.4 per cent, of less than half the banking sector average of 0.9 per cent and growth of only one quarter the growth rate reported by Westpac (at 1.6 per cent).

Commonwealth Bank reported growth of 1.1 per cent for the month.

Financial aggregates published by the Reserve Bank of Australia show that housing credit from all lenders increased by 0.7 per cent over October, consistent with recent months.