APRA to release additional housing market data

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) will expand its quarterly property data publication to include new and more detailed statistics on residential mortgage lending.

In a letter to authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) today, APRA confirmed the next edition of its Quarterly Authorised Deposit-taking Institution Property Exposures (QPEX) publication would include additional aggregate data on residential property exposures and new housing loan approvals.

The decision is part of APRA’s to move towards greater transparency, and will enable more in-depth market analysis by industry analysts, media and other interested parties.

The updated QPEX publication will also feature:

• reporting of additional sector-level statistics for the ‘Mutual ADI’ category; and
• clarified definitions for reported items, specifically for unreported loan-to-value ratios.

APRA Executive Director of Cross-Industry Insights and Data Division, Sean Carmody said: “APRA’s updated Corporate Plan commits us to increasing transparency of both our own operations and the industries we regulate. One of the key ways we can do that is by releasing more of the data we collect.

“With the ADI sector heavily reliant on commercial and residential property lending, enhancing QPEX will translate to greater transparency and sharper insights into one of the most crucial contributors to the economy.”

Consultation is continuing separately on a proposal for quarterly publication data sources to become non-confidential.This would mean that more of the underlying data may be disclosed to the public on a dis-aggregated basis. While this consultation remains open, APRA will continue to publish industry and peer group aggregate data, and mask data in QPEX where an individual entity’s confidential information could be revealed.

The next QPEX will be published on 10 March 2020 for the December 2019 reference period.

The letter to industry and non-confidential submissions can be found at: https://www.apra.gov.au/authorised-deposit-taking-institution-publications-refresh

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is the prudential regulator of the financial services industry. It oversees banks, credit unions, building societies, general insurance and reinsurance companies, life insurance, private health insurers, friendly societies, and most members of the superannuation industry. APRA currently supervises institutions holding $6.5 trillion in assets for Australian depositors, policyholders and superannuation fund members.