Login
ISCOVER
The volume of lodgements by the aggregator’s brokers rose for the last quarter of the 2023 financial year following three consecutive declines.
Aggregator Australian Finance Group (AFG) has released its latest AFG Mortgage Index, revealing that lodgement volumes bounced back during the final quarter of the financial year 2023 (ending June 2023).
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
According to the group, its network of brokers lodged $22.4 billion in residential mortgage finance by the end of the 4Q23.
This followed three consecutive falls in lodgements since 1Q23, having dropped from $21.5 billion to $20 billion in 2Q23 and $19.4 billion in 3Q23.
According to the index, the number of lodgements rose to 37,270 in 4Q23 from 32,444 during the previous quarter.
This represented a lift of 15.6 per cent on the prior quarter, according to AFG chief executive David Bailey.
“Each of the country’s major markets registered an increase, led by more than $1 billion increases in lodgement volume in both Victoria and NSW,” Mr Bailey commented.
“It’s also clear that the ending of the cashback offers by three of the four majors did have the impact of dragging demand back into the 2023 financial year with some record-breaking daily lodgement numbers recorded in the last week of the quarter.”
The average loan size increased from $598,258 in 3Q23 to $602,028 in the final quarter, according to the index.
The percentage of mortgages lodged for first home buyers fell to 11 per cent, after it rose to 12 per cent in the previous quarter.
In addition, the number of borrowers choosing to take out finance to upgrade their property dropped to 37 per cent to the lowest levels since 3Q17, as interest rates soared.
The number of borrowers taking out fixed loans rose to 8 per cent in the last quarter of 2023, up from 5.6 per cent in 3Q23, to its highest level since 4Q22 where fixed-rate home loans were 7.7 per cent of total home loan volumes.
Mr Bailey added: “Nervousness in the market of further rate rises to come has seen the proportion of home loans with fixed rates rise again for the third quarter in a row.”
However, he noted that this is “still very low and below longer-term averages”.
“This is markedly down from the highs of 2022 when fixed-rate home loans reached 38 per cent of total home loan volumes,” Mr Bailey said.
[RELATED: Just 11% of buyers are FHBs: AFG]
JOIN THE DISCUSSION