Australia: Housing finance shows persistent weakness - ANZ

Analysts at ANZ point out that all categories of housing finance in Australia has posted a sharp losses and were below market expectations.

Key Quotes

“Owner-occupier finance was hit hardest, although this may be a correction to last month’s spike of owner-occupier finance, which was the highest monthly gain since August 2017.”

“The monthly loss of investor finance result is about average for the last year, while the annual result is the 13th consecutive decline of 20% or more. This points to persistent but not worsening rates of reduction across housing finance categories.”

“The value of housing finance fell by 3.2% m/m in March, more than reversing the gain seen in February. After last month’s bounce, a fall was not surprising, although the magnitude of the loss was larger than expected. The y/y decline slowed marginally, though, from -20.3% in January, -18.6% in February to -18.4% in March.”