Investors drive record result for major aggregator

AFG processed a total of $4,380 million worth of mortgages for the month, up from $3,674 million in April 2014. The group said last month’s figure is a record for the month of April.

The result reflected increasing Victoria investor activity, combined with already strong NSW investor activity, AFG said.

The major aggregator processed a higher proportion of home loans for investors in Victoria last month than ever before at 40.9 per cent, up from 36.7 per cent in March 2015, and 36.9 per cent in April 2014.

In NSW, the proportion of investor mortgages remained around its all-time high of 52.8 per cent of applications.

“Investor activity in both Sydney and Melbourne is now at the highest levels we have recorded in 21 years,” AFG general manager of sales and operations Mark Hewitt said.

“Elsewhere it’s a different story – for example in WA, where first home buyers comprise a much larger proportion of buyers than elsewhere, property investment cooled somewhat last month,” Mr Hewitt said.

Queensland property investment rose to 36.7 per cent in April from 33.3 per cent in March, in South Australia there was an increase from 37.7 per cent to 38.2 per cent, and in WA figures softened from 33.6 per cent to 32.8 per cent.

First home buyer figures remained at low levels across all of Australia, except for WA, comprising just 2.0 per cent of new mortgages in NSW, 6.4 per cent in SA, 7.7 per cent in Queensland, 8.9 per cent in Victoria and 18 per cent in WA.

According to AFG, the proportion of new borrowers choosing fixed home loans was 13.6 per cent, continuing an overall decline since October 2014 when 18.2 per cent of borrowers chose to fix their rates.