The QBE Australian Housing Outlook for 2016-2019 identifies key groups at play in the property market and sheds some light on what they’re up to based on the proportion of all residential loans granted to each group.
While media spend a lot of time talking about first home buyers and investors, it’s actually the ‘upgraders and downsizers’ enjoying the biggest slice of the property pie.
- Upgraders and downsizers accounted for about 43 per cent of all residential loans in 2015-16. These buyers went quiet back in 2011 and 2012 but are now returning to the playing field with loans to upgraders increasing in Queensland as well as most other states in the last financial year.
- First home buyers made up around 13 per cent of all residential loans in 2015-16. Nationally, loans to first timers have been declining since the end of 2014, but demand is expected to level out to long term averages.
- Investors made up 44 per cent of residential loans in 2015-16. A year earlier they made up more than half the market but tighter investor lending criteria has returned the investor share of the market closer to its long term average.
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