City Apartments Blog
Home loans drop but pick up expected
News.com.au
14 Mar 11
The number of home loans approved in
January fell following flooding in Queensland, but economists
expect the numbers to pick up during the rebuilding phase.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported today that
home loans approved in January had fallen 4.5 per cent in
January, to a seasonally adjusted 48,871.
Economists' forecasts had centred on a 0.5 per cent rise in
housing finance commitments for the month.
ICAP senior economist Adam Carr said it was pretty clear that
recent flooding in Queensland had dampened the overall numbers,
although he expected a rebound in the near term.
"You'd have to think going forward that loans are going to
increase,'' Mr Carr said.
"There's a big rebuild underway in Queensland and obviously
that's going to flow through to lending numbers.''
He did not expect the numbers to change expectations of future
cash rate hikes by the Reserve Bank of Australia.
.."In terms of the outlook, I don't think it means a lot because
the RBA said they're going to look through flood impacts and this
is what we're seeing.''
The ABS also said total housing finance by value fell by 5.3 per
cent in January, seasonally adjusted, to $20.290
billion.
