New home lending in australia has subdued end to 2012

New home lending in Australia had a subdued ending to 2012, according to new figures.

Figures from ABS Housing Finance shows that lending for the construction and purchase of new homes by owner occupiers increased by 1.4 per cent over the month of December 2012. However, over the December 2012 quarter, lending eased by 0.5 per cent.

"The headline result for December 2012 was just in the positive for new home building. Underneath this, the picture is still very patchy, although some geographical areas are posting more encouraging results," said Housing Industry Economist Diwa Hopkins.

Looking at the December 2012 quarter, the number of loans was up for new dwellings, down for construction, and basically flat for existing dwellings. Across the states, lending for the construction and purchase of new homes was up in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, though down in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

"Overall, 2012 can be characterised as year where new home lending just managed to climb out of the lows reached in 2011, with lending for construction and purchase of new homes rising by 8.5 per cent. Furthermore, it's encouraging to see that the NSW, Queensland and WA finished off 2012 with positive results as these states will be crucial to an aggregate recovery in new home building," said Diwa Hopkins

"It remains the case that new home lending is among a suite of leading indicators which have yet to clearly signal a broad and sustainable new home building recovery of the scale commensurate with what Australia's economy and population requires," said Diwa Hopkins.

For the December quarter of 2012 the total number of seasonally adjusted loans for the construction and purchase of new homes increased by 12.0 per cent in New South Wales, 6.4 per cent in Western Australia, and 2.1 per cent in Queensland. The number of loans declined by 13.0 per cent in Victoria, 8.8 per cent in Tasmania, and 1.0 per cent in South Australia.