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ISCOVER
Steven Cross
Lending finance figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show lending activity remained stagnant in January.
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According to the ABS results, the total value of owner-occupied housing commitments, excluding alterations and additions, remained flat in trend terms, while the seasonally-adjusted series rose by 1.3 per cent.
However, new figures released by RP Data yesterday show the property market has improved in several areas over the past month, which should be reflected in ABS data later this year.
The combined capital cities' average home value increased by 0.3 per cent in the past week, and according to the mortgage market activity index, activity over the past month has spiked by 23.1 per cent from last month.
According to RP Data, the mortgage activity index shows an 81 per cent correlation with the ABS housing finance data series and an 88 per cent correlation using the seasonally-adjusted series.
Based on this strong correlation and significant share of market, the mortgage index provides one of the best forecasts to measure mortgage market activity available.
