The slowdown in the housing sector has been further confirmed, with figures showing a drop in home loans before the Reserve Bank last lifted interest rates.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the number of mortgage approvals fell 0.5 per cent to 59,459 during April. There was a 1.6-per-cent drop in home loans for the construction of dwellings, ahead of the May interest rate rise.
The Reserve Bank board is meeting today for the first time since that rise.
Home loans numbers for the purchase of new homes increased 0.7 per cent.
But mortgage loans for the purchase of established homes dropped 0.5 per cent, falling to 52,254.
The fall in mortgage loans was steepest in the ACT, where home loans were down 14.8 per cent (following a 31.7 per cent increase in March).
Mortgage home loans rose 6.6 per cent in Tasmania, 4 per cent in Western Australia, 2 per cent in NSW, 1 per cent in the Northern Territory and 0.6 per cent in Queensland.
However, mortgage approvals were down only 0.1 per cent in Victoria and the home loan market stayed steady in South Australia.
