New loan commitments for housing in the Territory went up 11.2 per cent in March this year to 436, the weakest among all jurisdictions, which increased from 15 per cent in Tasmania to 41.6 per cent in the Australian Capital Territory according to figures released by the Australian Bureau Statistics.

Nationally, the number of loan commitments was up by 22.6 per cent.

In contrast to the dismal monthly figures however, the Territory’s total loan commitments (excluding refinancing) for the year ending March 2022 are closer to the national average, up by 22 per cent to 3,480, the biggest increase in all jurisdictions.

The figure reflects an increase of 54.1 per cent in non-first home buyers, offsetting the 17.2 per cent decrease in first home buyers.

Year-on-year ending March 2022, the value of commitments (excluding refinancing) in the Territory improved by 28 per cent to a total of $1.3 billion, as compared with the national figure of 27 per cent to $262.7 billion.

ABS data show that the number of commitments by first home buyers (year ending March 2022) in the Territory went down by 17.2 per cent to 1,056. The slowest growth among the jurisdictions, which otherwise ranged from a 16.4 per cent reduction in Tasmania to 1.2 per cent less in Victoria. Nationally, total commitments declined by 4.4 per cent to 147,665.

The data also indicated that the number of non-first home buyer commitments – excluding refinancing – in the Territory increased by 54.1 per cent to 2,424 in the year ending March 2022. On the whole, the country’s number of commitments went up by 18.1 per cent to 345,663.