WA first home buyers increase – but numbers still lower

First home buyer activity in Western Australia has risen recently although underlying activity remains subdued.

Latest ABS data reports that 1466 first home buyer loans were approved over September – an increase of 4.4 per cent over the 1404 approved over August. 

In the first nine months of this year 13,363 first home buyer loans have been approved a decrease of 1985 or 12.9 per cent lower than the 15,348 recorded over the same period last year.

The average first home buyer loan increased to $340,100 over September and was 2 per cent higher than the average loan for this group recorded over the same month last year.

Reflecting overall subdued market conditions, first home buyers accounted for 21 per cent of all residential lending over September which is the highest monthly market share recorded since October 2012 – nearly three years ago. This is clearly the best performance of any state.

Although numbers have fallen this year, first home buyer home loan market share remains well above the local long-term average of 18.6 per cent.

In another early positive sign for the local market, total lending for owner-occupiers excluding refinancing in WA increased to $1.53bn over September – up by 7.5 per cent over the month. The value of lending to this group however,  remains 11.2 per cent lower over the first nine months of this year compared with the same period a year ago. 

Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group Senior Economist Twitter@DocAndrewWilson