Residential lending expands to $2.17 trillion in August, with mid-tiers challenging majors in growth

Agile Market Intelligence dissected publicly available data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to survey Australia’s property loan market and track movement in the top 10 authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs). In August, mortgage loan books expanded for seven of the ten ADIs, with new housing loans totaling $10.17 billion. 

Key stats you need to know

• Top 10 lenders record $10.17 billion expansion since July, reaching a total residential loan book of $2.17 trillion in August.   

• Seven of the ten largest lenders in Australia continue to see growing mortgage portfolios.

• CBA, with a loan book expansion of $3.19 billion (0.54%) in August, displaced Macquarie ($2.79 billion), which had the largest growth last month after funding $3.21 billion worth of new loans in July.

Mortgage book swells across lender sizes

• The big four banks funded $7.26 billion of this month’s total loan book expansion among the top 10 lenders, while the mid-tier ADIs on the list recorded $2.91 billion growth.

• CBA expanded its loan book by 0.54% in August, now at $599 billion.

• Macquarie leads the pack of the mid-tier banks, with loan book growth marked at $2.79 billion, now capturing $150.5 billion of the top 10 ADIs’ total loan book.

Housing loan demand continued to grow market-wide, as seven of the ten largest ADIs expanded their loan books in August. The big four banks captured 71% of this growth, with CBA leading the pack as its total loan book swells to $599 billion. Among mid-tier lenders, Macquarie continues to outperform its peers, with a total loan book of $150 billion, while ING trails far behind with a $68 billion loan book.

“The expansion in loan books spans from mid-tier to major ADIs, reflecting the increasing demand for property financing among Australians from a broad range of client segments,” said Michael Johnson, Director at Agile Market Intelligence.  

Macquarie outpaces majors, ING loan book growth trails closely behind ANZ

• Macquarie’s loan book grew by $2.79 billion in August, besting 3 of 4 majors this month, while ING approaches ANZ at $0.87 billion expansion.

• CBA took the largest share of housing loans at $599 loan book in August, followed by Westpac ($490 billion), NAB ($337 billion), and ANZ ($319 billion).

• Macquarie and ING’s loan books are growing more than twice as fast as Australia’s largest lenders at 1.89% and 1.30%, respectively.

According to the most recent data from APRA, the majors currently fund 80% of the total property loans taken out as of August. They have also maintained stable yet modest growth rates in the past year. Meanwhile, half of the non-major ADIs in the top 10 posted loan book expansion, with Macquarie and ING registering growth rates more than double those of the big four. Notably, Macquarie’s loan book grew by 2.79 billion, even outperforming three of the four majors in terms of absolute loan book growth.

“The majors are benefitting from longstanding relationships with their customer base, as shown in their stable growth rates in the past year. On the flip side, we’re seeing non-majors catching up in terms of growth,” said Michael Johnson.

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About the research

Figures in this article were drawn by Agile Market Intelligence from APRA’s Monthly Authorised Deposit-taking Institution Statistics to August 2025. The dataset covers total housing loans segmented into owner-occupied and investment housing loans across the ten largest lenders by mortgage loan book size.

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 https://www.brokerpulse.com.au.