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Mortgage lending remains strong despite a fall in the number of loan approvals.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that $29.2 billion of housing finance commitments were made in October, which marked a 10.3 per cent increase on the previous year.
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The owner-occupied share of those commitments grew 5.7 per cent to $17.1 billion, while the investment share surged 17.3 per cent to $12.1 billion.
However, the total number of loan approvals fell 1.1 per cent to 51,720.
Loan approvals for established homes climbed 2.9 per cent to 42,487, while construction approvals jumped 16.0 per cent to 6,436.
However, loan approvals for the purchase of new dwellings fell 6.5 per cent to 2,798.
First home buyers represented 11.6 per cent of owner-occupied commitments in October, compared to 12.6 per cent the previous year.
Their average loan size increased 12.1 per cent to $331,800.
The figures for October suggest the market may be cooling, as annual growth in September was significantly higher at 14.8 per cent.
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