Today's Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) housing finance data for August 2015 shows that investor loans are falling, particularly for newly constructed houses and apartments.
Commitments for the construction of dwellings for rent or resale fell 1.6%, while the total value of investment housing fell 0.2% in August 2015, compared to July 2015.
Homeowners might be concerned by that data, although owner-occupier loans continue grow strongly. That suggests many existing homeowners are continuing to upsize or downsize creating a highly-liquid property market.
The big four banks Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) and Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) should also be happy with the data, with credit growth strong overall.
The problem with the ABS data is that it is months old, and trends in other data (auction numbers and clearance rates) suggest house values are falling and it has become a property buyers' market.
As we wrote in July 2015, investment loan numbers from mortgage broker Australian Finance Group Ltd (ASX: AFG) continue to fall.
Put it all together and there are definite signs that Australian property prices could be headed for a fall.
