Lending to home buyers to build or purchase new dwellings defied the increase in interest rates in
October but was blunted by continued weakness in lending for rental investment according to the
Housing Industry Association, Australia’s largest building industry organisation.
HIA Senior Economist, Mr Ben Phillips, said that loans for the construction of new dwellings and the
purchase of newly-built homes combined increased by 5.7 per cent following a rise in September. New
housing loans increased in 13 out of the last 14 months.
“The strength of lending to owner occupiers continued to be countered by weakness in loans for new
investment housing, which experienced a fall of 0.6 per cent. Loans for new investment housing were
down 10.5 per cent over the last 3 months relative to the corresponding period of the previous year,”
said Ben Phillips.
“The housing industry will be relying on a strong investor market over 2010 to assist in a broad -based
housing recovery through 2010. The investment lending figures bode poorly for this outcome and
signal another year of skinny rental vacancies and upward pressure on rents.” said Ben Phillips.
This press release is from the HIA Economics Group website. To continue reading the article in full click here.
