Mortgage settlements dip across states: PEXA

The August 2021 Monthly Settlements Insights released by ASX-listed digital property settlements platform Property Exchange Australia (PEXA) has revealed that new sale settlements funded with a loan decreased across NSW (0.6 per cent), Queensland (6.2 per cent), Victoria (5.9 per cent) and Western Australia (4.9 per cent) in July 2021.

However, they remained well above last year’s levels, up by 44.6 per cent in NSW, 48.9 per cent in Queensland, 61.5 per cent in Victoria, and 68 per cent in Western Australia.

Favour towards non-majors increases

Non-major lenders overtook the major banks in net monthly position for new loans in July for the first time in the past year in NSW while major banks showed a decline, according to PEXA data.

In the Queensland and Western Australia, the major banks showed a decline in their already negative net position for new loans from sales, reaching a new low for the past year.

On the other hand, non-majors increased their net new loans, trending at levels well above the majors.

In Victoria, major banks showed a 31.7 per cent decline in their net position for new mortgages, although they retained a lead while non-major banks grew their net positive position and continued their positive trend.

Refinancing continues red hot run

Refinances have remained at robust levels across the states, jumping in July 2021 by 7.7 per cent in NSW, 7.5 per cent in Queensland, 7.8 per cent in Victoria, and 8.2 per cent in Western Australia.

Year-on-year, refinances spiked by 43.5 per cent in NSW, 41.1 per cent in Queensland, 32.7 per cent in Victoria, and 82.7 per cent in Western Australia.

The performance of the major and non-major lenders in refinances varied across the states.

While the major banks showed an improvement in NSW, they remained at a net loss, while non-major banks continued to win more refinances that they lost, but have dropped back after the previous month’s peak.

The major banks did not find much favour in Queensland, where they continued to decline and reached their worst position in the past year, while in Victoria the major banks showed a monthly decline in July 2021 to move to their most negative net position in the last 12 months.

On the other hand, non-majors continued to win more refinances than they lost in both Queensland and Victoria, well ahead of their negative net position in July 2020.

Conversely, the major banks continued their positive trend in Western Australia and widened the gap between them and the non-majors (who moved into their most negative position despite matching the majors only a few months ago).

Overall, property sale settlements dropped slightly in July 2021 in NSW (down 1.6 per cent), while Victoria (down 6.4 per cent), Queensland (down 5.6 per cent), and Western Australia (down 5.1 per cent) recorded slightly larger decreases.

However, PEXA highlighted that these modest declines came off elevated levels in June 2021 and bucked the usual winter declines.

Compared with last year, settlements spiked across NSW (44.6 per cent), Queensland (52.6 per cent), Victoria (55.2 per cent) and Western Australia (61.3 per cent).

[Related: NSW, Qld record yearly spike in refinancing]

Malavika Santhebennur is the features editor on the mortgages titles at Momentum Media.

Before joining the team in 2019, Malavika held roles with Money Management and Benchmark Media. She has been writing about financial services for the past six years.