Australian September housing finance falls in line with expectations, further weakness likely

Australia’s housing finance for the month of September fell in line with expectations in September, with declines across all segments. The recent fall in owner-occupier finance suggests that weaker sentiment is now also having an impact on the broader market, according to the latest report from ANZ Research.

The value of housing finance commitments fell sharply again in September. Following some downward revisions to the August results, the value of finance has fallen 7.5 percent in the last two months, which is one of the weakest consecutive results on record.

For the second month running, most of the monthly decline was in the owner-occupier segment. Owner-occupier approvals are now 11 percent lower than a year ago, which is the largest decline since 2010.

While most of the focus around credit tightening has been on investors, the accelerating decline in owner-occupier borrowing suggests that weaker sentiment in the housing market is having an impact on the demand for credit.

"Further weakness in house prices is likely, although smaller loans should be considered a positive development from a financial stability point of view," the report commented.