Australian housing finance data release for August 2014:

Home loans, -0.9% m/m

  • expected +0.2%, prior was +0.3%

Investment lending, -0.1% m/m

  • prior was +5.6% (revised from +6.8%)

Owner-occupied loan value, -2.0%

  • prior was +0.2%, (revised from flat at 0.0%)

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From the Australian Bureau of Statistics:

Australia housing finance graphs for 10 October 2014
Australia investment in property graph 10 October 2014

More:

  • the headline 0.9% drop is the largest since December 2013
  • The value of approvals to investors fell by 0.1 per cent in August and is 27.6 per cent higher over the year
  • First home buyers accounted for just 11.8 per cent of approvals to owner-occupiers – it’s lowest level in history
  • Today’s data shows an increase in the share of total lending going to investors of 0.3% to 40.62% of all new lending during the month. That’s the highest percentage since late 2003 (good pick up from BI)

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AUD is little changed as i update this post, 25 minutes after the release.