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Pressure is mounting on Australia’s mortgage market following the most dramatic slide in the average size of home loans since 2000, according to one comparison website.
Finder.com.au’s analysis of data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that the national average home loan size now sits at $357,200, a decline of 4.08 per cent in February 2016 compared to the previous month.
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The average national home loan size declined by 7.71 per cent (or $29,100) in the past three months to February, which finder.com.au said was the biggest three-month drop since the May-July period in 2000, when the national average fell by 7.74 per cent.
“It is also the first time the average loan size has dropped by more than 1 per cent in three consecutive months,” the comparison website added.
New South Wales suffered the sharpest decline in average loan size during February at 5.75 per cent. Additionally, the average loan size in NSW dropped by 10.15 per cent (or $45,500) in the last quarter, the biggest decline on record.
On this three-month timescale, home loan sizes were also down in other states.
“Victoria and Queensland are down around 6 per cent, while South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania are down 2 to 3 per cent,” finder.com.au said.
South Australia was the only state to experience an increase in home loan sizes during February, with an increase of 0.62 per cent.
Finder.com.au spokesperson Bessie Hassan believes the impact of APRA’s investor lending crackdown is finally being felt.
“Banks are scrutinising new loan applications more closely, taking a tougher line when assessing borrowers’ income,” she said.
[Related: Mortgage refinancing hits record high]
