South Australians Acquire Housing Loans, Up 0.8% in April
South Australia recorded the highest growth in housing loan acquisition for the month of April.
It climbed 7.6 percent compared to the previous month, beating other regions such as Victoria with just a 4.4 percent increase, and the Northern Territory and Australian Capital with even lower percentages.
This was revealed by the latest official figures released by the Bureau of Statistics.
According to the ABS figures, the total number of new housing loans around the country enjoyed a slight increase of 0.8 percent for the month of April.
This increase is the fourth consecutive rise since the start of the year. But although a spike in housing loans was recorded, it still is well below the 5 percent marked increase recorded in March.
Statistics show that a total of 48,475 loans were granted by lenders in April. This is a slightly adjusted increase from the 47,566 loans in March.
Despite the modest increase, however, the total value of new loans dipped by 0.2 percent to $22.7 billion. The decline could be attributed to a lot of factors. Did borrowers choose cheaper-priced dwellings in April? Or did real estate prices slump a bit that month?
Meanwhile, Master Builders Australia's chief economist Peter Jones is optimistic that the upswing can spark growth in the construction sector.
He said that as the supply of housing units is being depleted, it only follows that more people will demand for the construction of new dwellings.
"While this is a welcome prospect for builders, we must not get ahead of ourselves as there is still a lot of ground that needs to be made up before confirming a sustained recovery," he said.