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The list of broker groups reporting record figures for last month is growing, with many claiming a trifecta of influences sparked the results.
With both Aussie and AFG reporting massive results last week, Choice and Oxygen Home Loans have also joined the ranks of October’s best performers.
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Choice results lifted 30 per cent on the year before, with the group settling over $1 billion in October.
Choice CEO Stephen Moore said the significant milestone was a direct outcome of group initiatives as well as strong overall growth in the property market.
Oxygen Home Loans lodged in excess of $100 million in home loan applications for a record three months in a row, achieving overall lodgements of $345 million from August to October.
Mortgage Choice also revealed October was one of the best months for the group this year.
“October was a strong month thanks to a number of contributing factors which geared the property market perfectly,” corporate spokesperson Jessica Darnbrough said.
“Coming to the end of the spring selling season ... media reports of rising prices have launched buyers into a frenzy, [and they are] trying to snap up property while it’s still within reach.”
According to latest figures from RP Data, year to date house price growth is sitting at 8.6 per cent nationally, with big numbers for Sydney (13.2 per cent), Melbourne (8.2 per cent) and Perth (6.2 per cent).
Ms Darnbrough added that greater certainty had returned to the market with the end of the election campaign.
Meanwhile, according to a survey from Roy Morgan, Australian business confidence in October rose to the highest level recorded since the survey began in December 2010.
For the first time since April 2011 the proportion of Australian businesses reporting that they are better off now (28.2 per cent) than at the same time last year was higher than the proportion reporting they were worse off (27.7 per cent).
Auction clearance rates at record highs in the months leading up to October and employment data also pointed to an improving economy.
Loan Market director Mark De Martino said that the first quarter of the financial year was off to a very strong start, with growth nationally up 12 per cent compared to the previous year and up 13 per cent year-on-year for September.
“Low interest rates and a recovering property market are helping boost activity in the home finance space. Nearly every state is showing double digit growth for the first quarter,” Mr De Martino said.
The 51,938 home finance approvals in September were a rebound from the August figures, which saw the first month-on-month drop in approvals in 45 months.
Mr De Martino said that with auction clearance rates booming this spring, the upward trend would continue over the next several months.
