Australian home-loan approvals declined for third month, and the amount of first-home buyers plunged to the lowest in eight-and-a-half years after central bank interest-rate decline failed to attract customers into the market. The amount of loans granted for purchase or construction of houses and apartments slumped 1.5% and report depicted that the overall value of loans declined 2.6% to A$20.8 billion ($21.5 billion) in December.
"The improvement in demand in the housing market looks quite tentative," indicated Rob Henderson, chief markets economist at National Australia Bank Ltd. However, "still, there was improvement in lending for construction of dwellings. That's important in terms of policy, because the RBA will be looking for signs the housing market improvement in prices is spreading out in terms of actual activity."