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Home loans dip despite investor strength

Investors continue to gain confidence, but not enough to lift dwelling commitments in December, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed this week.

The trend estimate for total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions rose 0.4 per cent in December 2012 compared with November 2012.

Investment housing commitments rose 1.3 per cent, while owner-occupied housing commitments fell 0.1 per cent.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions fell 2.6 per cent.

The number of commitments for owner-occupied housing finance fell 0.1 per cent in trend terms in December 2012.

Loans for the purchase of new dwellings rose 0.4 per cent, but this was cancelled out by a fall in the number of loans to build new homes (down 1.1 per cent) and to buy established dwellings (down 0.1 per cent).