Housing finance performing strongly in Qld

CommSec’s latest State of the States report has revealed that Queensland has taken the top spot in the value of home loans during August 2024, with values sitting 39 per cent above the long-term decade average.

This has shown an increase on the previous period’s (July 2024) figure of 32.3 per cent and has overtaken Western Australia’s previous lead of 37.8 per cent. Housing finance values for Western Australia declined month on month, down to 36.2 per cent.

Similar to the previous five State of the States reports, housing finance is above decade averages in all states and territories excluding the Northern Territory.

In the NT, home loans are also still below 2023 levels. Commitments in the territory were 16.5 per cent lower than the decade average, worsening from the 7.1 per cent reading the previous month.

Following Queensland and Western Australia, South Australia took the third spot once again, with home loan values being up 22.6 per cent on the decade average (up from 19.7 per cent in July), while Tasmania jumped up to fourth place at 15 per cent (up from 8.6 per cent), overtaking both NSW and Victoria.

Home loan values in Victoria remained stable at 14.9 per cent, up from 14.6 per cent the previous month, while values in NSW were unchanged at 13.9 per cent.

The ACT saw slight improvement in home loan values, rising to 3.4 per cent in August 2024 from 2.7 per cent.

Annually, lending in Queensland also took the top spot for the month, up by 27.4 per cent, followed by Western Australia (21.5 per cent).

South Australia was in the third spot in annual terms, up by 12.3 per cent, followed by Tasmania (12.1 per cent), NSW (9.9 per cent), Victoria (8.8 per cent), and the ACT (3.1 per cent).

The NT was the only state or territory to record an annual decline, down by 11.2 per cent.

The latest Lending Indicators data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) further showed the strength of lending in the Sunshine State, being the key driver behind the August increase of 1 per cent.

According to ABS head of finance statistics, Dr Mish Tan, the total value of lending for housing (investor and owner-occupier) in Queensland rose by just over 40 per cent in the past 12 months, equating to a rise of $2 billion.

[RELATED: Investor lending nearing 2022 peak]

Adrian Suljanovic is a journalist at Broker Daily with more than two years experience reporting on all facets of the third party distribution channel.

Adrian has written for a range of business and finance titles including IFA, Investor Daily and Lawyer’s Weekly before joining the mortgages team in 2022.

He graduated from the University of Wollongong in 2021 gaining a Bachelor of Communication & Media with a major in Digital & Social Media.

E-mail Adrian at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.