FHB mortgage values rise 10.5pc

New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that first home buyers represented 14.2 per cent of housing finance commitments in January.

That was up on the 13.2 per cent share recorded the year before but down on the 14.5 per cent recorded the month before.

The average loan size for first home buyers rose 10.5 per cent year-on-year to $334,000, while the average loan size for all owner-occupiers climbed 7.3 per cent to $347,000.

Australians made $30.2 billion of housing finance commitments in January, an increase of 12.6 per cent.

The owner-occupied share of those commitments grew 7.2 per cent to $17.7 billion, while the investor share jumped 21.2 per cent to $12.5 billion.

The total number of finance commitments rose 0.7 per cent to 51,396, which was driven by a 1.9 per cent rise to 43,018 for the purchase of established homes.

However, commitments for new homes fell 7.9 per cent to 2,546, while commitments for home builds fell 4.1 per cent to 5,832.