Mortgage approval numbers lift 1.3% in June, below expectations, but some encouragement for new housing: ABS

The number of owner-occupier home loans approved in June rose 1.3% to 46,859 on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the latest ABS housing finance data.

This was up from a slightly upwardly revised figure of 46,280 home loans in May (the unrevised figure was 46,120 loans).

However, the June rise was below economists' forecasts (as polled by Bloomberg) of a 2% rise in housing finance commitments in June following the successive rate cuts in May (50 basis points) and June (25 basis points).

By state, outcomes for May were mixed. Excluding refinancing loans were up 4.4% in Victoria, 2.3% in NSW and 1.8% in SA but about flat in WA (+0.2%) and down 3.6% in Queensland.

Loans for the purchase of new dwellings rose 9.7% to 2,210 while construction loans rose 4.9% to 5,410.

Business Spectator columnist Stephen Koukoulas called this an “encouraging result” in a tweet this morning.

The June mortgage figures also show that banks had 88% of the market over the month.

The total value of mortgages lifted 2.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis to $20.724 billion. This was in line with expectations.

Between June 2012 and May 2012, the average loan size for first-home buyers rose $3,600 to $289,400.

The average loan size for all owner-occupied housing commitments rose $1,900 to $295,500 for the same period.