First-home buyers have defied odds with new figures showing more took out mortgages in September despite the cost of living crunch.
Monthly new loan commitments for first-home owner-occupiers jumped 1.4 per cent over the month to $4.6bn, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures on Thursday showed.
However, the total number of new loans remained weak. The value of new housing finance approvals rose just 0.6 per cent, less than half of consensus forecasts for a 1.3 per cent increase. Households with surging repayments could face a further squeeze if the RBA hikes rates at its Melbourne Cup Day meeting. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Max Mason-HubersSeparate ABS figures on Wednesday revealed a decline in new dwelling approvals – a leading indicator of construction activity – with total dwelling approvals falling 4.6 per cent in September to 13,144.
“The pressure in the housing market comes from a combination of the rapid rebuild in population – the level of the population is back to where a pre-pandemic trend would have pegged the population to be – and pandemic-induced changes in housing preferences which saw a decline in average household size,” NAB economist Tapas Strickland said.
According to RBA analysis, average household sizes fell to about 2.5 people per dwelling between 2020 and 2022 and increased the total demand for new dwellings by 120,000.
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