RBNZ figures show that first home buyers took 20.8% of the mortgage money advanced last month - the highest share since this data began being compiled in 2013

By David Hargreaves

First home buyers had their highest share of the mortgage spoils last month, according to the Reserve Bank.

The RBNZ has been compiling mortgage figures by borrower type since 2013.

And the latest figures, for August 2022, show that the first home buyers (FHBs) have hit a record high in terms of their share of the spoils, with 20.8%.

It does of course need to be stressed that the overall mortgage figures have slumped enormously since the massive buying and borrowing surge of 2020-21.

Indeed, the latest figures, showing total borrowing of $5.413 billion, are the smallest for an August month since the data series began.

The latest figures compared with $8.17 billion in August 2021 when the housing market was just beginning to cool off. And they compare with $6.875 billion borrowed in August 2020 when the market was just starting to really take off after the lockdown disruptions.

But the FHBs have nevertheless remained pretty staunch in their commitment to getting into a house. The $1.124 billion borrowed by the FHBs in August compares pretty favourably with the $1.391 billion borrowed by the same grouping in August 2021 - when you consider that overall more than $2.5 billion was borrowed that month.

Investors, who as a grouping has their lowest share of the total amount of mortgage money ever in July, had a slight increase in August, up to 16.7% ($905 million) from 15.8% ($852 million).

But this still pales next to the figures of 30%+ that this grouping has enjoyed as a share of the mortgage money during housing booms, particularly in the period around the middle of 2016.

The RBNZ said the average value of new mortgage commitments across all borrower types fell for a third consecutive month, down 5.5% from $379,061 in July to $358,263 in August.

The average mortgage size has now in the past three months dropped by some 11.5% - it was over $405,000 in June.

The RBNZ said there were 15,109 new mortgage commitments in August, up 6.0% from 14,251 in July.

However, compared with August 2021, new mortgage commitments were down 36.2% from 23,670.

And August 2022 had the lowest number of commitments for a month of August since data collection began in late 2013.

The RBNZ provided this summary of the figures:

This story was originally published on Interest.co.nz and has been republished here with permission.