Home loan statistics in Australia at a glance
- Average new owner occupier home loan amount: $734,881
- Average initial monthly repayment: $4,359 (over 30 years)
- Average home loan interest rate: 5.90% p.a. (owner occupier)
- Around 31,100 Australian homeowners switch their home loan to another lender every month
- Around 21.6% of new home loans are interest-only (the remainder being principal and interest)
- The total value of new home loans issued between January and March 2026 was $103 billion
Average home loan in Australia (by loan amount)
The average new home loan in Australia is $734,881 for owner occupier homes, including loans for purchases of established properties and construction loans.
The average home loan dropped by around 1% since the last quarter but is up around 11% over the past year, which works out as roughly an extra $75,000 for an average borrower.
As you might expect, the average new home loan size is largest in New South Wales and lowest in the Northern Territory and Tasmania, mirroring the median values of properties across the country.
The average home loan has grown most in Western Australia in that last year – rising by around 18%, or an extra $109,000.
| Location | Average home loan amount | Average monthly repayment |
|---|---|---|
Australia overall | $734,881 | $4,359 |
NSW | $860,397 | $5,103 |
Vic | $674,584 | $4,001 |
Qld | $741,097 | $4,396 |
SA | $664,032 | $3,939 |
WA | $702,699 | $4,168 |
Tas | $521,021 | $3,090 |
NT | $536,225 | $3,181 |
ACT | $665,234 | $3,946 |
Average mortgage by loan type
Looking at the breakdown of loan sizes in more detail, we can see that first home buyers overtook owner occupier refinancers in the last quarter for the first time since mid 2023.
The average first home buyer loan grew by about 1% in the last quarter, or 13% in the past year, versus 10.5% for loans overall. This is likely due to increased uptake of the expanded First Home Guarantee scheme, which allows first home buyers to more easily get a home loan with a deposit of as little as 5%, meaning more capacity for larger loans.
Meanwhile, average loans sizes for investors are still considerably higher than those for owner occupiers, despite a drop in investor loan sizes in the March 2026 quarter.
- Average first home buyer loan: $614,048
- Average refinance home loan: $603,142
- Average new investment property loan: $709,083
- Average investment loan refinance: $667,741
Across the board, the average loan size in Australia has grown significantly over time.
This steady increase in loan size has been despite volatile interest rates in the last couple of years, with rates rising again in the early part of 2026.
CoreLogic Australia’s Head of Research, Eliza Owen, explained to Money.com.au that this is down to stubbornly-high property prices.
“One of the extraordinary phenomena of the current cycle is that despite higher interest rates, we've also seen property values not only recover from a short, sharp decline where the market bottomed out in the beginning of 2023, but values have actually managed to climb back to new record highs.”
Eliza Owen, Head of Research at CoreLogic Australia
“Part of the reason that home values have continued to increase in a high interest rate environment is because of a surge and an acute level of net overseas migration, changes in households formation where there are fewer people living per dwelling, and also the constraints that exist in the construction sector. At the moment the market is for higher income households.”
Eliza Owen, Head of Research at CoreLogic Australia
Average home loan repayment
The average monthly home loan repayment in Australia is $4,359, an increase of $180 since the last quarter of data. Increasing loan sizes have been been the big driver of recent quarter-to-quarter repayment increases, but higher rates are now the main factor.
Mirroring average loan sizes, the repayment amount varies significantly across states and territories. Unsurprisingly, borrowers in New South Wales pay most on average – $5,103. By contrast, the average repayments in Tasmania is significantly lower at around $3,090.
The average home loan deposit is $173,000 among borrowers purchasing a new home to live in, according to Money.com.au borrower data. Investors purchasing a property do so with a slightly smaller deposit of $168,000 on average.
The average mortgage borrower in Australia
We analysed more than 20,000 borrowers who recently requested a home loan through Money.com.au. Based on this research, here’s a breakdown of who is applying for a home loan in Australia.
- 55% of mortgage applications are from joint applicants, while 45% come from an individual.
- The average annual income of an individual home loan borrower is $131,571. That's 26% higher than the average annual ordinary time earnings of a full-time worker in Australia.
- The average owner occupier refinancing their home loan has a high level of equity (just over 50%) in their property. The figure is lower for investor refinancers who have around 43% equity in their property.
- Both owner occupiers and investors buying a new home borrow just over 79% of the property’s value, on average.
- The vast majority of home loan borrowers are employed full-time (85.4%).
- Self-employed individuals make up a higher percentage of those borrowing to purchase an investment property (13%), compared to owner occupier properties (7%).
- Self-employed borrowers request larger loan amounts on average: $728,000 versus $605,000 for full-time employees.
Where do Australians get their home loans?
Home lending in Australia is heavily concentrated around the 'big four' banks. In fact, the combined value of home loans with the major banks is almost three times that of all other banks in Australia combined.
For borrowers who refinance their home loan, around 60% do so with a different lender (internal refinancing continues to grow). And more than 75% of all new home loans are taken out with the help of a mortgage broker, according to the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia.
New survey data from Money.com.au shows that only 20% of Aussies would trust AI-generated advice about their home loan. This makes home loans the financial product Australians would be least likely to turn to AI advice for.
Mortgage borrowing in Australia by loan type and location
Total home lending has now surged past the previous highs of late 2021 and early 2022. Compared to the previous year, overall lending was up by around 18.5% in the March 2026 quarter, driven by both growing owner-occupier (+18.5%) and investor (+25.3%) lending.
According to Dr Nalini Prasad, the rise in home lending levels comes despite the challenging circumstances many Australians are facing.
“Households have spent the large savings buffers that they accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic. These buffers initially insulated household spending from the increase in interest rates, but with these savings buffers gone, interest rate increases are going to have more bite.”
She says it's likely that the housing market is being supported by high overseas migration into Australia, as well as certain types of buyers with money to spend.
Dr Nalini Prasad, Senior Lecturer, UNSW Business School
“Sectors of the market which have a large fraction of cash buyers are likely to outperform the overall market. Cash buyers are typically wealthier, older individuals who are unaffected by changes in interest rates. These buyers are more likely to purchase properties in regional areas where they intend to retire.”
Dr Nalini Prasad, Senior Lecturer, UNSW Business School
The recent surge in property lending levels has been felt most sharply in New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland. All states and territories, bar Victoria and the ACT, saw record lending in the last quarter.
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