Home Buyers are on Strike – especially in N.S.W.

The latest ABS residential lending data for January seasonally adjusted confirms that the home buyer strike that impacted housing markets over the latter part of 2018 has continued into 2019. 

Most states recorded falls in the value of lending to both investors and owner-occupiers excluding refinancing over the month.

The exceptions were Victoria where owner-occupied lending increased by 0.4% and Queensland where investor lending was up by 1.0%.

N.S.W was clearly the worst performer of all the states with owner-occupier lending down by 4.9% over the month and investor lending down similarly by 4.6%.

Over recent weeks all banks have debunked the credit squeeze furphy being blamed by many ill-informed as the driver of the recent reduced demand and lower prices in capital city housing markets.

With banks clearly open for business and keen to lend, particularly to owner-occupiers, todays data reinforces the fear-driven crisis in confidence that has increasingly gripped home buyers over the past 6 months.