Lending fall for homes

THE number of home-loan approvals for owner-occupiers has fallen 1.1 per cent, beating market expectations for a 0.2 per cent fall.

The value of total housing finance was up 0.7 per cent at $33.067 billion in January, seasonally adjusted data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows. The value of new home-loan approvals for owner-occupiers was up 0.5 per cent, while investor loans were up 1.1 per cent.