SA sees significant boost in home lending

Now could be a great time to secure your home loan in South Australia, with new research showing the state has seen strong growth in its housing finance commitments.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reveals that the number of loans taken out by owner-occupiers for the construction or purchase of a new home totalled 1,622 in the three month period leading up to July this year.

That marks a substantial increase of 36.1 per cent since the same time last year, according to Housing Industry Association (HIA) Regional Executive Director, South Australia, Robert Harding.

With the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) recently slashing the cash rate down to a record low of 2.5 per cent, home buyers have even more of an incentive to step into the property market.

Since November 2011, the RBA has continued to ease monetary policy with a series of cash rate reductions. These effects are starting to trickle down, with a recent report from the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) showing that the proportion of income needed to meet repayments is now at its lowest level – 28.7 per cent – in a decade.

Mr Harding says that these latest home lending figures indicate that South Australia's property and residential construction sectors are beginning to pick up once more.

"This is the best three-monthly level that South Australia has seen in three years, which makes for an encouraging start into the new financial year," Mr Harding said in a September 9 statement.

"Housing finance is indicating that SA's residential construction sector in this second half of 2013 is finally starting to recover from what had been a period of protracted decline."

South Australian home buyers looking to design their own dream home may also receive a boost from the state's residential construction grant, which provides up to $8,500 towards the purchase or construction of a new home.