New loans bounce back over March: PEXA

Last month was a time that saw a surge upwards in the number of new mortgages across the country, with new figures released by PEXA reporting a bounceback across NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.

The data, which is included in PEXA’s latest monthly settlement and mortgage insights, noted that NSW experienced the highest number of new loans, with the most populous state reporting a month-on-month increase of 31.8 per cent to reach 12,757 new loans and its first monthly increase for 2022. 

Compared to year-on-year, this figure still remains down at 8.4 per cent. 

Similarly, Western Australia saw 6,734 loans over March, reflecting a momentum upwards of 27 per cent. 

While this is also the first reported for the calendar year, it’s also the highest growth reported by the western state since March 2021’s 6,616 new loans, with the latest figure marking yearly growth of 1.8 per cent. 

Both Queensland and Victoria reported increases over the same period, but the growth was marginal, the former seeing a rise of 10.5 per cent to hit 12,792. 

Compared to March 2021, this figure is a 10.8 per cent loss, and a 21.7 per cent loss to its November high of 16,338 loans.

Victoria saw a bump upwards of 2.2 per cent month-on-month to hit 12,710 new loans over March, marking a loss of 7.9 per cent and a loss of 23.6 per cent compared to its 12-month peak in December (16,636). 

Non-major dominate new loans

Non-major banks were reported as being the driver for these new loans at 3,296, with the smaller banks being most popular in Victoria (1,226), Queensland (695) and Western Australia (669). 

Major banks reportedly saw 2,364 new loans over the same period, being higher than non-majors only in NSW, exceeding by only 18 loans to reach 724. 

But it wasn’t all losses for the big four, with Victoria reporting growth of new major bank loans at 103.51 per cent, while non-majors reported a loss of 26.01 per cent. 

Refinancing continues to head skyward

According to PEXA’s figures, Australia was expanding on its refinancing trend reported in February, with all four states seeing significant booms. 

Victoria experienced the most refinances over March at 10,392, reflecting a monthly boom of 20.1 per cent and a yearly growth of 6.2 per cent. 

However, NSW (10,256) reported the highest monthly increase at 22.3 per cent. 

Queensland (6,396) and Western Australia (2,987) also saw monthly growth of 18.9 per cent and 16.5 per cent respectively. 

[Related: Property refinances hit new highs in 2021]