New home lending sees slight increase
There has been a slight rise in lending to those who have committed to buying a property, latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show.
Such data provides good news for the market, explained the Housing Industry Association (HIA), and the situation looks set to continue in the months to come.
The data was compiled in March, before the Reserve Bank of Australia opted to reduce the cash rate by 50 basis points.
HIA senior economist Andrew Harvey commented: "The number of loans for the construction or purchase of new homes lifted by 3.5 per cent in the month of March, which is a welcome piece of good news given the existing weak conditions facing the new home building sector."
He emphasised that although the cash rate reduction was the right call to make, further cuts need to be made to ensure the property market can continue to perform well.
Additional ABS figures show that in seasonally-adjusted terms, the number of commitments for owner occupied housing increased by 0.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, the number of first time buyer commitments declined from 17.2 per cent in February to 16.4 per cent in March.
