Australia home loans unexpectedly rebound in August as investment lending gathers pace

New home loans in Australia unexpectedly rebounded during the month of August as investment lending gathered pace during the period.

The total number of home loans in Australia was up a seasonally adjusted 1.6 percent on month in September, data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Thursday, coming in at 54,313. That beat forecasts for a decline of 1.6 percent following the 3.0 percent fall in August.

Investment lending climbed 4.6 percent on month to AUD12.416 billion after slipping 0.8 percent in the previous month. The value of loans was up 0.9 percent to AUD19.885 billion after sliding 1.0 percent a month earlier.

Further, investment lending for homes, a closely-watched measure of fixed residential property loans, climbed 4.6 percent. Investment lending for homes inched up 0.1 percent.

"Housing price growth has picked up noticeably in Sydney and Melbourne, where auction clearance rates have also increased to high levels. Housing market conditions remain weak in Perth, where prices of both apartments and detached dwellings have declined further over the past year," the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said last week in its quarterly forecast update.

Meanwhile, the RBA left its outlook on the overall economy virtually unchanged, projecting GDP growth of 2.5-3.5 percent through June 2017.