Wednesday, 28 October 2020

Mortgage lending up 30pc from a year earlier

Lending continues in September

Via CBA, new housing lending is up 30 per cent from a year earlier. 

This suggests that the strong figures reported a couple of weeks ago for August have in all likelihood continued through September and October.


Source: CBA internal data

A fair chunk of the surge has been for households refinancing to lower mortgage rates, but equally new lending to homebuyers is up sharply ex-refi.

With further easing to come, this is overall bullish for housing.

The RBA's Michelle Bullock concluded in a speech this morning that the Australian economy has coped well to date with the test of the COVID-19 downturn, but business failures will likely rise over the year ahead as insolvency relief is wound back.