Australia’s largest mortgage broker, AFG, has reported that the number of property investor loans it has processed has fallen in June, with a dramatic reduction in investment loans in the booming Sydney market.
While the company processed a record 11,056 mortgages in June, worth AU$5.1billion, only 36.9% were for property investment, down from 40.9% in May. New South Wales and its state capital Sydney saw the sharpest fall in investor loans, down from 49.8% to 41.6% in a month, possibly as a result of concerns over whether the city’s property market may be “overheating”, largely as a result of investor activity.
“If this trend continues, it should help allay concerns about overheating in Sydney in particular, as investment levels there come back into line with the sustainable, long term national average,” says AFG managing director Brett McKeon, going on to say that the reduced proportion of investment loans indicates that moves by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority, introduced to cool the Sydney market, were taking effect.
