Federal policy changes have helped to drive the size of new first home buyer loans up by 6.8% for the three months ending in December 2025.
And a record 8.5% growth in the size of loans was driven mainly by NSW homeowners, new statistics data says.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) head of finance statistics Dr Mish Tan says the figures reveal strong growth across all borrower-types in the quarter.
“The number of first home buyer loans rose 6.8%, investor loan numbers rose 5.5% and the number of owner-occupier non-first home buyer loans rose 3.6%,” she says.
“This was the largest rise in the number of first home buyer loans since the December quarter 2023 and their value increased by 15.5%.”
Policy changes helping first home-buyers in the quarter, such as the expansion of the federal 5% Deposit Scheme and new Help to Buy Scheme, were identified as factors in this growth.
POLICY BOOSTS NEW LOANS
The number of first home buyer owner-occupied loans rose by 2011 loans (or 6.8%) to 31,783 in the December quarter and 9.1% all year, the ABS data says.
Rises were recorded in NSW (10.9%), Queensland (6.4%), Victoria (3.5%), Western Australia (9.8%), South Australia (4.8%), Australian Capital Territory (7.1%) and Northern Territory (3.2%) and a fall in Tasmania (-1.7%).
“The size of the average first home buyer loan rose by a record 8.5% to $607,624 this quarter and was largely driven by first home buyers in NSW,” Dr Tan says.
“The 5% Deposit Scheme increased the eligibility criteria for first home buyers and we are seeing the early effects of this in our data,” she says.
RECORD NUMBERS, VALUE IN QUARTER
There were 60,445 new investment loans approved in the 2025 December quarter, up 5.5% (or 3176 loans) compared to the previous quarter and 23.6% higher than for the 2024 December quarter.
The value of new investment loans stood at $43 billion, a growth of 7.9% or $3.2 billion while the average loan size rose by $31,008 to stand at $716,711.
Investment loans grew in all the states — Victoria (8.8%), NSW (4.1%), Queensland (3.3%), Western Australia (4.6%), Tasmania (28.2%) and South Australia (2.8%) — but fell in the Northern Territory (-9.3%) and ACT (-4.3 %, not seasonally adjusted).
ABA REACTS
Australian Banking Association chief executive officer Simon Birmingham says it is pleasing to see the new first home buyer loans rise by 6.8% for the quarter.
“We know how tough it can be for first home buyers to break into the property market at present,” he says.
“Over 125,500 mortgages were provided to first home buyers last year; this number is on the rise and it’s encouraging to see more Australians realising the dream of home ownership.”
MORE HOME LOAN NEWS: Qld regional areas prove popular
