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Home loan borrowers owe Australian banks more than $2.3 trillion, a new record high, according to new data.
The latest release of the Monthly Authorised Deposit-taking Institution Statistics from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has revealed that the total value of outstanding home loans across all 126 banks in Australia reached a record $2.30 trillion in March 2025, after rising 0.44 per cent between February and March.
As house prices continue to reach record highs in Australia (the median house price is now a record $825,349, according to property data company Cotality), the amount of money lent out to Australian property buyers has surpassed the $2.3 trillion mark for the first time.
APRA stats released on Wednesday (30 April) showed that the total value of owner-occupier loans lent out by banks reached $1.56 trillion in March, with investment lending up to $0.73 trillion.
The overall growth in mortgage lending was up by approximately $10 billion (0.44 per cent) between February and March, with the home lending volumes up 5.55 per cent – or $120 billion – over the 12 months.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has the largest mortgage book of all banks, at $583.30 billion, with $385.6 billion in owner-occupier loans and $197.7 billion in investment loans. It has grown its home lending by 6.13 per cent between March 2024 and March 2025.
Westpac has $483.49 billion with Australian borrowers (up 3.20 per cent on March 2024), $320.8 billion in owner-occupier loans, and $162.6 billion in investment loans.
The third-largest mortgage lender, National Australia Bank, has $328.73 billion owing in mortgages (up 3.18 per cent on March 2024), comprising $218.3 billion in owner-occupier loans and $110.4 billion in investment loans.
Rounding out the big four is Australia and New Zealand Bank (ANZ), whose book totalled $312.59 billion in March 2025 (up 5.88 per cent on March 2024), including $208.6 billion in owner-occupier loans and $103.9 billion in investment loans (a growth of 5.88 per cent from March 2024 to March 2025).
Macquarie continues to be one of the fastest-growing mortgage lenders of all 126 banks operating in Australia, having increased its book by 18.18 per cent over the 12 months to March 2025. It now has a total book of $136.7 billion, including $85.2 billion in owner-occupier loans and $51.5 billion in investment loans.
Other banks that have organically grown their home loan books (i.e. not by merging with another lender) include Bank of China and Defence Bank Limited, which both grew by 14 per cent over the year to March, albeit from a much smaller base.
The APRA figures come after property settlements provider PEXA revealed that there has been a sharp increase in refinance volumes in recent months, saying that competition in the home loan market is heating up once again.
PEXA settlement data showed that there was a 12.5 per cent increase in refinance volumes in the March quarter (when compared to the same period last year) and almost 120,000 new loans were settled in the March quarter, 4.4 per cent higher than the same period a year earlier.
A total of $80.2 billion in new loans, of which $73.5 billion were for residential property, were settled in the quarter, up 7.6 per cent year on year.
According to the property exchange platform’s latest Property and Mortgage Insights Report, the rise was partly due to improved buyer sentiment following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to cut the cash rate in February 2025 (although Loan Market Group data has shown that approvals remained fairly flat in the March quarter).
Given that the central bank is widely expected to lower interest rates when it next meets (on 20 May) and amid a raft of new housing measures pledged by the political parties, it is likely that 2025 may be another record year for mortgage lending in Australia.
[Related: Refinancing rebounds after rate cut spurs mortgage competition]
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