Investors have charged back into the retail property market and are driving demand for mortgage finance.
According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics housing finance data, the value of new loan commitments to investors rose 13.3 per cent in May 2021, compared with the previous month.
Loan commitments to investors, worth A$9.1 billion in May, represented 28 per cent of the total value of housing loan commitments during the month.
When mortgage lending to investors was at its peak in 2015, investor loans represented more than 40 per cent of the total.
New housing loan commitments to owner occupiers rose 1.9 per cent in May. The number of loan commitments to first home buyers fell 0.8 per cent.
Overall, new housing loan commitments rose 4.9 per cent in May to a new high of $32.6 billion. Over 12 months the value of housing loan commitments rose 95.4 per cent.
According to Reserve Bank lending data, lenders’ outstanding mortgage balances grew by 0.6 per cent in May and by 4.8 per cent over the 12 months to May.
Owner occupier loan balances grew 0.7 per cent month-on-month and 6.6 per cent over the year, while investor mortgage balances grew 0.4 per cent month-on-month and 1.6 per cent over the year.
The annual rate of growth in mortgage balances has picked up steadily from its most recent low of 3 per cent in December 2019.
And according to the latest APRA ADI lending figures, the lenders with the biggest growth in their mortgage books over the past year include Horizon Credit Union (up 34.7 per cent over 12 months) Macquarie Bank (up 33.8 per cent), Bank of China (up 33 per cent), Teachers Mutual (up 20.6 per cent) and Illawarra Credit Union (up 20.3 per cent).