Australia: Housing approvals soften – Westpac

The Australian April housing finance approvals report was largely in line with expectations as the number of approvals for owner occupier loans declined –1.9%mth but posted a milder 0.7% fall ex refi explains Matthew Hassan, Senior Economist at Westpac.

Key Quotes

“The consensus forecast was for a 1% decline. Approvals ex refi were up 1.5%yr. The value of investor loans fell 2.3%, annual growth holding at 14.1%yr.”

“Note that this is the first monthly observation after APRA's macro prudential tightening announced in late March. Measures and associated mortgage interest rate increases are likely to weigh more heavily on investor loans with the full impact becoming clearer in coming months.”

“More recent data from weekly auction activity suggests housing market conditions continued to cool in May and early June, albeit with clearance rates still above their long run averages. Note that these measures only provide meaningful gauges for the Sydney and Melbourne markets.”