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The latest statistics on authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) released by the Australian Prudential and Regulation Authority (APRA) has shown that business lending growth among Aussie banks far outperformed residential lending over February 2025.
According to APRA, total business lending to non-financial businesses (e.g. retail, manufacturing, food services, etc) grew by 0.9 per cent over the month or $9.8 billion, reaching $1.1 trillion.
These figures surpassed both the dollar and percentage increases for residential lending, which grew a total of $7.5 billion (up 0.33 per cent) to $2.29 trillion.
Owner-occupier lending contributed $5.4 billion in growth over February (up by 0.35 per cent) while investor lending added $2.1 billion (up by 0.29 per cent).
Business lending growth strong among the big 4
Along with the overall increase accounting for all of Australia’s ADIs, each of the big four major banks revealed outperforming increases in business lending when compared to their residential loan books.
For ANZ, business lending grew by 0.51 per cent over the month, up by $760 million, reaching a total of $147 billion.
In comparison, ANZ’s total residential lending book grew by $1.2 billion to $311 billion (up by 0.4 per cent), comprised of a rise of $964 million to its owner-occupier book (up by 0.46 per cent) to $207 billion, and a 0.26 per cent rise ($273 million) in its investor book, reaching $103 billion.
Maintaining its top spot in market share, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s (CBA) saw its business loan book increase by $3.36 billion or 1.6 per cent, to $209 billion (accounting for almost one-third of total business lending growth over February).
CBA’s residential book also performed well in February, increasing by $1.74 billion (0.29 per cent) to $580 billion, with an increase of 0.23 per cent in its owner-occupier book (up by $898 million) to $383 billion and 0.43 per cent in its investor book ($839 million), reaching $196 billion.
NAB’s business lending loan book saw the second-highest dollar increase following CBA, which grew by $2.15 billion (up by 0.92 per cent) to $233 billion, while its total residential loan book rose by $841 million, comprised by a 0.34 per cent increase to owner-occupier lending ($737 million) to $217 billion, and a slight upward shift in its investor book of 0.09 per cent ($104 million) to $110 billion.
Finally, Westpac recorded the second-highest percentage increase of 1.18 per cent in its business lending book, up by $2.03 billion, reaching $174 billion.
Meanwhile, Westpac saw a modest increase to its total residential loan book, up by 0.11 per cent or $509 million, to $483 billion, made up of a 0.17 per cent ($382 million) increase in owner-occupier lending to $230 billion, and a small 0.08 per cent ($127 million) increase in its investor book to $162 billion.
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