Australians refinance more than $20 billion in loans

Written on the 21 August 2023

With lots of people coming off fixed rates right now, it’s no surprise that an enormous amount of refinancing is occurring, as borrowers look to switch to lower-rate loans.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data has revealed that borrowers did $20.60 billion of refinancing in August – which was 3.9% lower than the month before but 12.4% higher than the year before.

Meanwhile, the ABS also revealed that the value of all new home loan commitments in August was $24.82 billion, which was 2.2% higher than the month before.

Owner-occupier borrowing rose 2.6% to $16.07 billion, while investor borrowing rose 1.6% to $8.75 billion.

That said, home loan activity has fallen on a year-on-year basis:

· Total borrowing down 9.4%

· Owner-occupier down 12.5%

Investor down 3.0%

The interest rate environment has changed a lot recently, and the level of competition in the mortgage market is fierce, so there are a lot of great refinancing deals available – including with quality smaller lenders you may be unfamiliar with.