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Mortgage lending continued to lift in December across owner-occupied and investor lending, new APRA data has found.
Despite the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) lifting the cash rate by 300 bps since May 2022, banks have continued to report increases to their home loan books.
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The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released its monthly authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) statistics for December 2022 revealing that total mortgage portfolio reached $2,061 billion, up from $2,050 billion last month.
The increase in home loan was made up of owner-occupied loans, which increased 0.58 per cent to $1,385.1 billion, up from $1,377.7 billion as well as investor lending, which lifted 0.3 per cent to $676.3 billion, from 673.8 billion.
Investor lending was a bit more subdued when compared to May, up 0.5 per cent (the start of the rate hiking cycle), however, remains up from October, which saw a 0.2 per cent lift.
Across the majors, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s (CBA) owner-occupied mortgages lifted approximately $2.1 billion for the month to 356.7 billion, holding the largest share.
The major bank reported a more than $700 million increase to its investor loans taking its share to $176 billion.
Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac) saw its owner-occupied home loan book grow to $286.7 billion, up 0.2 per cent from the previous month while its investment home loans marginally increased by 0.06 per cent to $154.6 billion from 154.5 billion.
The National Australia Bank’s (NAB) share of owner-occupied housing loans lifted to $197.3 billion in December, up from $196.4 billion the month prior.
Similarly, NAB’s housing investment lifted marginally up to $107.7 billion, from $107.6 billion the month before.
Lastly, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited’s (ANZ) owner-occupied loans lifted to $179.6 and $91.2 billion in housing investment loans.
Property sales grew in December
The bank’s end-of-year mortgage book growth coincides with an upward trend in property sales settlements in December.
According to the digital settlement platform, sales settlements grew in “all but one capital city” in December as 2022 “signed off on a high".
PEXA data also showed a “significant increase” in commercial property settlement volume, with residential settlements up 8.2 per cent MoM and commercial settlements up 28.1 per cent MoM.
[Related: Continued slight increase in ADI resident loans: APRA]
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