Mortgage lending on all properties thaws out

The latest Reserve Bank data shows mortgage commitments rose 6.8% from $5.4 billion in August last year to $5.8 billion last month. This was up 15.7% from $5 billion in July or 8.2% when seasonally adjusted.

Mortgage values increased across all loan purpose types. The average value of new mortgages for property purchases at $551,100, up 0.9% from July and changes in loan provider at $590,100, but down 1.7% from July remains significantly higher than the overall average.

The value of loans for top-ups rose to $626 million last month, up 8.2% from July. Similarly, the value of loans for property purchases rose 16.1% to $3.7 billion and the value of loans for changes in loan providers rose 18.7% to $1.2 billion in August.

Total new mortgages for property purchases increased 0.2% from July to 64.6% in August. This share has been increasing since it reached 55.9% in March. New lending for changes in loan provider also increased 0.5% from July to 21.4%.