Few first home buyers start as investors, and they now make up a smaller share of investor borrowing than at any time since the ABS began counting them. In the June quarter 2026, 1,513 investor loans went to first home buyers, 2.88% of all new investor loans, the lowest share in the 28 quarters since the series began in 2019. The share peaked at 6.31% in the March quarter 2021. Over the same years, first home buyers’ share of owner-occupier loans has held between about 33% and 42%.
The node reading averages three measures, one of which is the investor share above; it was certified on the March quarter data as first published, which the ABS has since revised from 3.11% to 3.06%. The investor series begins in 2019. Against its 28 quarters the June quarter 2026 share is the lowest.
What is being counted
The ABS counts new housing loan commitments each quarter, split between owner-occupiers and investors, and within each between first home buyers and others. A first home buyer who borrows to buy a property to rent out, rather than to live in, is counted as an investor first home buyer. The ABS has published that count only since the September quarter of 2019, so the series is 28 quarters long. All national figures here are seasonally adjusted counts of loans, not their value.
A share that more than halved
First home buyers took 5.50% of new investor loans in the September quarter of 2019. The share rose to 6.31% in the March quarter 2021, then fell to 4.03% in the September quarter of 2022, recovered to 4.90% a year later and dropped again from late 2024. It has been below 3.2% in every quarter since the March quarter of 2025, and reached 2.88% in the June quarter 2026.
First home buyers’ share of new investor loans
Investor first home buyer loans as a share of all new investor loans, by number, seasonally adjusted. Source: ABS Lending Indicators, June quarter 2026, Tables 1 and 25.
Fewer first home buyers, many more investors
The fall in the share comes from both sides of the ratio. Investor loans to first home buyers peaked at 2,893 in the December quarter of 2021; in the June quarter 2026 there were 1,513, 37% fewer than the 2,393 of the March quarter 2021, when the share peaked, and 48% below the December 2021 high. Between the March quarter 2021 and the June quarter 2026, all new investor loans rose by 39%, from 37,936 to 52,599 a quarter. First home buyers are a smaller part of an investor market that has grown.
New investor loans: all investors and first home buyers
Seasonally adjusted counts of new loan commitments, indexed to the September quarter 2019 = 100. Source: ABS Lending Indicators, June quarter 2026, Tables 1 and 25.
The owner-occupier side tells a different story. First home buyers’ share of owner-occupier loans rose to about 42% in the September quarter of 2020 and has stayed between about 33% and 37% since the September quarter of 2021; it was 35.9% in the June quarter 2026. The long history of that share is in Twenty-Four Years of First Home Buyer Lending. The two shares are not comparable in size: about one owner-occupier loan in three goes to a first home buyer, against about one investor loan in thirty.
By state
Every state and territory had a lower share in the year to June 2026 than in the year to June 2021. New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory had the highest shares in the latest year, at 3.63% and 3.61%, and the Northern Territory the lowest, at 1.85%. Five years earlier Western Australia had the highest, at 7.90%. The smaller jurisdictions have few such loans, about ten a quarter in the Northern Territory, so their shares move with small counts.
First home buyers’ share of investor loans by state, year to June 2026
Investor first home buyer loans as a share of all new investor loans, by number, original series summed over the four quarters to June 2026. Source: ABS Lending Indicators, June quarter 2026, Tables 14 and 25.
| State or territory | Year to June 2021 | Year to June 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | 6.54% | 3.63% |
| Australian Capital Territory | 7.13% | 3.61% |
| South Australia | 5.16% | 2.97% |
| Victoria | 5.96% | 2.88% |
| Western Australia | 7.90% | 2.83% |
| Queensland | 5.20% | 2.61% |
| Tasmania | 4.22% | 2.46% |
| Northern Territory | 6.11% | 1.85% |
| Australia | 6.09% | 3.04% |
First home buyer loans as a share of all new investor loans, by number, original series summed over four quarters. Source: ABS Lending Indicators, June quarter 2026, Tables 14 and 25.
What this does not show
The series counts loans, not people or properties, and it begins in 2019, so it cannot show where the current share sits against a longer history. It does not show how long a buyer holds the property as an investment or whether they later live in it. First home buyers who buy an investment property without a loan are not counted. Movements coincide with changes in interest rates, prices, rents and first home buyer schemes aimed at owner-occupiers, and the data cannot separate them.
Findings are presented on the basis of data and evidence alone.
