New data has shown investor loans racing ahead of owner‑occupier borrowing in the March quarter.
Mortgage Choice’s latest Home Loan Report has shown investors powering a sharp upswing in housing finance over the March quarter, while fresh figures from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) revealed investor credit growth had been outpacing owner‑occupier lending since mid‑2025.
Mortgage Choice’s submission data revealed that, for purchase loans, the value of owner‑occupied lending rose 14.8 per cent year on year in the March quarter, while investor loans jumped 30.5 per cent over the same period.
This produced total quarterly purchase growth of 19 per cent.
Western Australia stood out as the hottest investor market, recording a 73 per cent surge in the value of investment loans compared with a year earlier, signalling intense competition for stock.
Mortgage Choice CEO Anthony Waldron said the numbers showed investors remained highly active but that the breakneck pace seen last year was beginning to moderate.
“The pace of growth for loans to investors slowed slightly over the first quarter of the year,” Waldron said.
“With the federal budget set to deliver tax reform for property investors, investor activity may slow further.”
Investor credit growth widens the gap
APRA’s latest Monthly Authorised Deposit‑taking Institution Statistics backs up the broking‑channel trends, with investment housing credit growing at an annual rate of 8.5 per cent in March 2026.
According to analysis of the regulator’s loan‑book data, annual growth in investment housing balances had accelerated from 6.1 per cent in July 2025 to 8.5 per cent in March 2026, even as interest rates increased by 25 basis points in February, March, and May.
The data shows that investment mortgage growth has decisively outpaced owner‑occupier lending since June 2025, when the annual growth rate for investor housing first edged above that for owner‑occupier loans and then continued to pull away.
The March figures showed a particularly sharp step‑up between February and March, reinforcing that investors are still willing to add leverage in anticipation of capital gains and rental demand, even in a higher‑rate environment.
The strength in investor credit comes as regulators move to rein in riskier borrowing.
APRA has activated debt‑to‑income limits, requiring ADIs from February 2026 to cap high DTI loans at 20 per cent of new lending for investor and owner‑occupier portfolios separately, a move aimed at cooling the most stretched segments of the market.
At the same time, the federal budget, which delivered substantial amendments to investor tax settings, will add a fresh source of uncertainty for landlords weighing new purchases.
Against that backdrop, March may prove to be close to the high‑water mark for this phase of the investor upswing, with tighter macroprudential settings and less generous tax treatment potentially slowing the investor tide.
[Related: Regional investor boom masks growing credit strain]
Want to see more stories from trusted news sources?
Make The Adviser a preferred news source on Google.
Click here to add The Adviser as a preferred news source.
