Home loan approvals in Australia rebounded unexpectedly in March, as more buyers took advantage of the central bank’s back-to-back reduction in mortgage rates late last year.
According to data released yesterday by the statistics bureau, the number of loans approved to build or buy homes ticked up 0.3 percent from February after dropping 2.5 percent.
Yesterday’s data and last week’s unexpected decline in unemployment prompted Glenn Stevens, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), to halt rate reductions at next month’s meeting.
The central bank slashed the benchmark rate by half a percentage point this month following quarter-point reductions in November and December last year as home prices dropped, inflation slowed and the local economy struggled to get a stronghold.
“Declining property prices, improving affordability and rising auction clearance rates indicate appetite for owner-occupied housing finance is gradually rising,” said Katrina Ell, an economist at Moody’s Analytics in Sydney.
“But stubbornly weak confidence about future economic conditions is preventing a strong revival.”
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