Australian banks and other deposit-taking institutions had approved $541.0bn of credit against commercial property at the end of June 2026. Of that, $72.8bn was for residential projects and $36.4bn for land development and subdivision: together $109.3bn, or 20.2% of the total, the highest share since December 2018 and up from 16.3% at the end of 2020. Those two categories make up a fifth of the banks’ commercial property limits but supplied 45.4% of the growth in them over the past year.
Limits are credit that lenders have formally approved, not money lent. Current prices throughout.
What the banks report, and what counts as residential
Each quarter the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) publishes the commercial property lending of authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs): banks, building societies and credit unions. Under APRA’s reporting standard, a commercial property exposure is a facility for developing, buying or improving real estate where repayment depends on selling or renting the property. Home loans are not part of it: lending to owner-occupiers, and to individuals and families investing in housing, is excluded and reported separately.
Lenders sort the lending into seven categories: office, retail, industrial, land development and subdivisions, other residential, tourism and leisure, and other. Two of these bear on new housing. “Other residential” is APRA’s name for the residential lending left once home loans are excluded: in practice, finance to businesses that build housing for sale or hold it for rent. “Land development and subdivisions” covers lending to develop or subdivide land that is repaid from the sale of that land, and is not limited to land for housing. This article reports the two side by side and adds them only as a measure of the lending closest to housing development, not as a count of housing finance.
The figures used here are exposure limits: the credit a lender has formally advised to a borrower, whether or not it has been drawn. It also includes a credit-equivalent amount for contracts such as interest-rate hedges. A limit records what lenders have agreed to provide, not money spent. All figures are in current dollars, and they cover each lender’s whole group, including lending outside Australia; 91.2% of the total at June 2026 was in Australia.
The book at June 2026
Commercial property exposure limits by category, all ADIs, June 2026
APN calculation based on Australian Prudential Regulation Authority data: Quarterly ADI Property Exposures, June 2026, Table 1a (commercial property exposure limits, all ADIs). $ billion at 30 June 2026, current prices, with each category’s share of total limits.
Retail, office and industrial property account for two-thirds of the limits. Retail, at $130.3bn, was the largest category in June 2026, above office ($128.8bn) for the first time since the series began in 2004. Other residential was the fourth largest at $72.8bn, and land development the sixth at $36.4bn. Both were at their highest dollar level in the series.
| Category | Limits, June 2026 | Share, March 2011 | Share, December 2019 | Share, June 2026 | Change over the year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office | $128.8bn | 27.4% | 30.6% | 23.8% | −0.3% |
| Retail | $130.3bn | 20.1% | 25.5% | 24.1% | 8.1% |
| Industrial | $104.9bn | 12.0% | 12.4% | 19.4% | 9.7% |
| Land development and subdivisions | $36.4bn | 9.3% | 5.1% | 6.7% | 25.2% |
| Other residential | $72.8bn | 14.9% | 12.7% | 13.5% | 20.0% |
| Tourism and leisure | $17.3bn | 3.5% | 3.4% | 3.2% | 5.2% |
| Other | $50.5bn | 12.9% | 10.4% | 9.3% | 8.4% |
| Other residential plus land development | $109.3bn | 24.2% | 17.8% | 20.2% | 21.7% |
| All commercial property | $541.0bn | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 8.6% |
APN calculation based on Australian Prudential Regulation Authority data: Quarterly ADI Property Exposures, June 2026, Table 1a (commercial property exposure limits, all ADIs). Shares are of total commercial property exposure limits at the end of each quarter; the change is on June 2025.
A smaller share than in 2011, and rising since 2025
Share of commercial property exposure limits: other residential plus land development, and industrial
APN calculation based on Australian Prudential Regulation Authority data: Quarterly ADI Property Exposures, June 2026, Table 1a (commercial property exposure limits, all ADIs). Share of total commercial property exposure limits, end of quarter, March quarter 2011 to June quarter 2026.
In March 2011 the two categories made up 24.2% of commercial property limits. The share was 17.8% at the end of 2019 and reached its lowest point in the period, 16.3%, in December 2020. From March 2021 to March 2025 it stayed between 16.8% and 17.8%. From the June quarter of 2025 it rose in five consecutive quarters, to 20.2%.
Industrial property moved the other way over the longer run. Lending limits for warehouses and factories were 12.4% of the total at the end of 2019 and 19.4% in June 2026, while office fell from 30.6% to 23.8%. Between March 2021 and March 2025 the two categories grew in dollars, from $62.8bn to $82.9bn, while their share stayed flat: the rest of the book grew as fast.
The dollars behind the share
Exposure limits for other residential and for land development and subdivisions, all ADIs
APN chart based on Australian Prudential Regulation Authority data: Quarterly ADI Property Exposures, June 2026, Table 1a (commercial property exposure limits, all ADIs). $ billion, end of quarter, current prices, March quarter 2011 to June quarter 2026.
Other residential limits reached $51.1bn in June 2018, fell to $40.3bn by December 2020, and did not pass their 2018 level again until December 2022. Their share of the book was highest in June 2016, at 16.0%; it was 13.5% in June 2026. Land development limits were steadier, holding between $24.4bn and $25.3bn through 2023 and 2024 before rising in every quarter since. An earlier article follows the land development series and new construction lending in detail.
Over the year to June 2026 total commercial property limits grew by $42.8bn, or 8.6%. Other residential grew 20.0% and land development 25.2%, the two fastest of the seven categories; office limits fell 0.3%. Together the two categories added $19.5bn, which is 45.4% of the increase in the whole book, although they made up 18.0% of the book a year earlier.
Since the end of 2019
Growth in commercial property exposure limits by category, December 2019 to June 2026
APN calculation based on Australian Prudential Regulation Authority data: Quarterly ADI Property Exposures, June 2026, Table 1a (commercial property exposure limits, all ADIs). Change in exposure limits between 31 December 2019 and 30 June 2026, current prices, not adjusted for rising property values or building costs.
Measured from the end of 2019, the ordering is different. Industrial limits grew 147.7%, the most of any category, and land development 106.5%, from a low base: its share of the book in December 2019, 5.1%, was close to the lowest of the period. Other residential grew 68.1%, against 58.0% for all commercial property and 23.0% for office, the slowest. These figures are not adjusted for the rise in property values and building costs over the period, so part of each reflects higher prices for the same projects.
What this does not show
A limit is lenders’ agreement to lend, not building activity, and the figures do not say how many dwellings the lending supports. Land development includes land for uses other than housing, and other residential includes finance for holding existing rental housing as well as for building. The figures cover ADIs only: lending by non-bank and private credit providers, which also finance development, is not in them. Loans to builders who are paid under contract by a client are also outside the collection, which counts lending to whoever carries the development risk; the position of construction companies themselves is covered in the quarterly insolvency figures. In the June and December quarters APRA collects commercial property figures from the lenders with the largest books, about 99% of the total, and estimates the rest from their earlier returns.
- Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (Reference period: June 2026) Quarterly authorised deposit-taking institution property exposures, June 2026 (released 17 September 2026) [https://www.apra.gov.au/quarterly-authorised-deposit-taking-institution-property-exposure-statistics-june-2026-highlights], accessed 10 October 2026.
- Australian Prudential Regulation Authority Quarterly authorised deposit-taking institution property exposures statistics: glossary [https://www.apra.gov.au/system/files/2020-03/Quarterly%20authorised%20deposit-taking%20institution%20property%20exposures%20statistics%20glossary.pdf], accessed 11 October 2026.
- Australian Prudential Regulation Authority Reporting Standard ARS 230.0 Commercial Property, with Reporting Form ARF 230.0 and its instruction guide [https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2022L00227/asmade/text], accessed 10 October 2026.
APRA material is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence. Shares, growth rates and groupings of categories are APN’s and are not attributable to APRA.
Findings are presented on the basis of data and evidence alone.
