Residential property investor loans continue to grow
(2 June 2015 – Australia) Residential property loans to investors continued to grow strongly in April, even as credit growth slowed.
Credit value on the books of Australian lenders increased 0.3 percent in April, seasonally adjusted figures from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) showed.
Annual credit growth was 6.1 percent, marking the fourth consecutive month the annual pace narrowly beat 6 percent.
Two years ago the annual growth rate was just 3.1 percent, and one year ago it was 4.6 percent.
This acceleration has only lifted credit growth to a slow-moving pace though, still less than half the 12.5 percent average over the decade before the global crisis in 2008.
Owner-occupier housing loans were also sedate, up 5.7 percent over the year to April, other personal credit is up just 0.6 percent in that period, and business credit in April was up just 5 percent from a year earlier.
However, loans to housing investors are up 10.4 percent.
The figure falls just above the 10 percent speed limit imposed in December by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).
While the annual growth rate was just over the regulator's line in the sand, the growth rate over the most recent six months works out to exactly 10 percent in annualised terms.
Growth over the most recent three months was slower, an annualised pace of 9.8 percent.
The rise in April itself, a little under 0.8 percent, was in line with that growth rate.
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