Investors Took 35.6% of New Australian Mortgage Lending in the June Quarter

Australia's banking regulator put investor loans at 35.6% of new mortgage lending in the June 2026 quarter, up 1.48 points on the year, while high-deposit lending fell.

Investors accounted for 35.6% of new Australian mortgage lending in the June 2026 quarter, up 1.48 percentage points on the same quarter of 2025, according to the property exposure statistics the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority published on 17 September 2026. Owner-occupiers took 61.9%, down 1.72 points. The shift is small in any single quarter and large once it compounds, because the flow is what eventually becomes the stock.

The flow has already moved further than the book

Total residential term lending outstanding reached A$2,558.5 billion at the end of June, up 7.0% from A$2,391.8 billion a year earlier. Within that book, owner-occupied loans were 66.7%, down 0.8 points on the year, and investment loans were 31.2%, up 0.72 points.

Put the two measures side by side and the direction becomes readable. Investors hold 31.2% of the existing book but are writing 35.6% of the new one. A 4.4 point gap between the stock share and the flow share is the mechanism by which the composition of Australian mortgage debt changes, and it will keep changing as long as the gap stays open.

New loans funded during the quarter came to A$200.5 billion, up 6.8% from A$187.6 billion a year earlier. That is slightly slower than the 7.0% growth in the outstanding book, which is unusual and worth watching in the next quarter rather than over-read in this one.

The shift is happening with less leverage, not more

The obvious worry about a rising investor share is that it arrives with thinner deposits and stretched borrowers. This quarter's numbers do not show that.

Loans written with a loan-to-valuation ratio of 80% or above were 29.7% of new lending, down 0.72 points on the year. Loans written at a debt-to-income ratio of six or more were 5.6%, up 0.1 points, which is effectively flat. Australian banks are lending a larger share to investors while writing marginally fewer high-deposit and high-income-multiple loans than they were twelve months ago.

That combination is unusual. It says the composition shift is coming from who is borrowing rather than from a loosening of standards.

What an Australian investor is actually buying

Our Australia row prices the national market at USD 471,613 per unit as of the 13 September 2026 snapshot, against a monthly rent of USD 1,921 per unit. Both come from the same national asking series for apartments, which is why the pair produces an exact ratio: a gross yield of 4.89%, falling to 3.42% after an effective 30% tax on rental income, one of the heaviest rates in our coverage.

That is the number worth holding next to APRA's. An investor entering the market at today's level is buying an after-tax income yield of roughly three and a half per cent. The rest of the case has to come from capital growth, and over the last twelve months there has been plenty of it: prices are up 10.8% in Australian dollars and 22.4% in US dollars, because the Australian dollar gained 10.5% against the US dollar over the same period. Over ten years the market is up 65.7% locally and 56.1% in dollars. Our bubble score for Australia is 61, in the elevated band, and round-trip transaction costs are 7.3%.

The balance of that case is not something a data page can settle. A 3.42% after-tax yield leaves little cushion if capital growth stalls, and Australia's dwelling values have already recorded monthly falls this year.

One limit on our own side is worth stating plainly. We publish no price per square metre for Australia at all, because no publisher issues one for the existing dwelling stock and every available average floor area describes new buildings only, which are far larger than the standing stock. Estimating the per-square-metre price from a new-build floor area would understate it by a wide margin. The yield above is unaffected, because price and rent are both per dwelling and floor area never enters the ratio.

Foreign buyers should also note the ownership rule recorded on the row: purchases are restricted to new builds, with established dwellings closed to them under a measure running from 2025 to 2027.

Sources: Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, Quarterly Authorised Deposit-taking Institution Property Exposures, June 2026 highlights, 17 September 2026 https://www.apra.gov.au/quarterly-authorised-deposit-taking-institution-property-exposure-statistics-june-2026-highlights

Market data: Australia