Housing loan books reaches $115,180 million, a new peak

On February 11, 2026, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released their most recent figures on business loans for property purchase and construction, marking a year-long sustained growth for commercial property financing. The data reveals that the number and value of loans reached new record highs, while the number of first home buyer loans increased by 6.8% towards the end of 2025.

Key stats you need to know

• The number of first home buyer owner-occupied loans rose by 6.8% in December 2025.
  
  
• New housing loans grew by 15% in the 4th quarter of 2025, driven mainly by owner-occupier loans.
  
  
• New housing loan books valued at $115,180 million, a new record high since Q4 2021.

Total number of housing loans reached a new peak in December 2025

• The total number of housing loans reached 158,121 in the 4th quarter of 2025.
  
  
• 60% of loans originated from owner-occupier housing mortgages, while 40% came from investment loans. 

The total number of new housing loans rose by 15% year-on-year, totalling 158,121 loans in December 2025. This is the highest number of loans for the whole of 2025, continuing a growing trend since January of last year. Owner-occupied housing is responsible for the majority of these loans, as investment loans have been steadily increasing in its share over the past few years. Compared to the September quarter, there was a 1 percentage point increase in owner-occupier loans, and a respective decrease for investment loans. It remains to be seen which way the trend continues in 2026.

Investor loans grow 33% year-on-year as housing loan books reach $115,180 million

• The value of new housing loan books grew by 25.2% year-on-year.
  
  
• Owner-occupier ($69,777 million) and investor ($45,402 million) loan books both reached record-high values and growth rates.
  
  

The value of new housing loan books reached a new record-high in December 2025. The previous highest record was in Q4 2021, with loan books valued at $96,776 million. This number was bested by the new Q4 2025 data showing that the value totalled $115,180 million, a 25.2% year-on-year (YoY) increase. Growth from both owner-occupier and investor loans drove these numbers. Owner-occupier loans totalled $69,777 million (20.6% YoY), while investor loans were valued at $45,402 million, boasting a steeper YoY growth rate (33.1%).

Loans for first home buyers rose by 9.1% yearly

• The number of first home buyer loans totalled 31,783 at the end of 2025.
  
  
• New South Wales had the highest percentage of loans at 10.9%. 

According to ABS’ Quarterly Investment Loans Statistics Highlights, first home buyer owner-occupied loans rose by 6.8% in the last quarter with an additional 2,011 loans from September. This totalled to 31,783 loans at the end of the year, the largest number for this segment in 2025.  New South Wales drove the growth, having seen an increase in loans by 10.9%. Following this state are Western Australia (9.8%) and the Australian Capital Territory (7.1%). These growths may be attributable to the implementation of the Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme, a strategy that aids first home buyers in acquiring loans for their homes. 

Source: ABS Quarterly Investment Loans Statistics Highlights

About the report

Statistics in this article were acquired by Agile Market Intelligence from ABS’ quarterly Lending indicators statistics (December 2025). The dataset covers loans of new borrower-accepted finance commitments for housing, personal, and business loans. The release also covers year-on-year changes as well as loan dwellings per state in Australia. 

Agile Market Intelligence also conducts Broker Pulse, a monthly survey of residential and commercial mortgage lenders. It is a community-driven knowledge base of lender performance that offers transparency to the market by surfacing these collective insights from the broker community. This empowers brokers to make informed decisions and enables lenders to benchmark and improve performance.

Participating brokers receive access to a bird’s-eye view of the lender benchmarking data each month. To sign up or for more information visit www.brokerpulse.com.au.