THE TILT
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THE TILT
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Australian businesses committed $27.2 billion to property purchases in the June quarter 2026, up 4.4% on March and the highest quarter since the ABS series began in 2002. Over the same three months new home loan commitments fell 5.2% by value, and investor commitments fell 10.2%. Two columns of the same release moved in opposite directions, and this page follows the split from the national data down to one bank's books and what it means if you're weighing a commercial purchase.
In the March quarter households committed $103.0 billion to new home loans, and businesses committed $26.1 billion to buying property. The dashed line holds that level so every move from here is read against it. Both numbers come from the same ABS release, a column apart.
Business finance for property purchases rose 4.4% to $27.2 billion, ahead of the previous high of $27.0 billion set in December 2025. New home loan commitments fell 5.2% by value to $97.6 billion, and 5.4% by number to 134,225 loans.
Investor commitments fell 10.2% by value to $37.1 billion, and 8.6% by number to 52,599 loans. Owner-occupiers slipped 1.9% by value. On the business side, construction finance rose 2.9% to $12.5 billion. The pivot has slid toward the business end because the household side fell further than business rose.
The ABS series for business finance to purchase property runs back to September 2002. For most of that time it sat between $6 billion and $17 billion a quarter. It set a high of $15.3 billion in March 2008, pushed past $22 billion in early 2022, and has now set a new high in four of the last five quarters. The June quarter figure is 18.9% above where it stood a year earlier.
These are dollar figures without an inflation adjustment, and property prices have risen a long way since 2002, so part of the long climb is price. A rise of 18.9% in twelve months is harder to put down to price alone, and it arrived in the same release that shows households stepping back.
A record in demand only matters if lenders are willing to meet it. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank's audited FY26 results, released on 24 August 2026, give a clean look at one lender's two columns. Business lending grew 12.5% over the year while total lending grew 1.5%, so the business book grew more than eight times faster than the bank as a whole. Over the same year business arrears fell and residential arrears edged up.
Faster growth with falling arrears on the same book is what appetite looks like when a bank wants more of a segment and is getting paid back on what it already holds. It's one lender's year, so it's a single data point, and it lines up with the national numbers above.
Source: Bendigo and Adelaide Bank FY26 results announcement to the ASX, 24 August 2026 (audited).
The June quarter covered the weeks after the May federal budget announced changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, and investors are where the household fall concentrated. Investor home loan commitments are now 13% below their December quarter high of $42.7 billion.
Business property purchases answer to different inputs: whether the premises suit the business, and whether the rent covers the debt with room to spare. The budget didn't change either of those, and the business series kept climbing through the same quarter.
One related change landed after the quarter closed, so it isn't in these numbers. From around 10 August 2026, self-managed super funds can no longer enter new borrowing arrangements for residential property, while commercial property and business real property were left out of the ban. We've written up how SMSF borrowing for commercial property still works, including the common structure where a fund buys the premises the business trades from.
On pricing, commercial facilities are usually set off the bank bill swap rate, which moves on market expectations ahead of any Reserve Bank decision. Whatever the market expects from rates is already sitting in the price of a new facility on the day you sign.
Momentum in the numbers is useful context, and the reason to buy is still that the asset works for the business or produces income that carries the debt comfortably. What the June quarter changes is the assumption that credit is the obstacle. With lenders growing their business books and business arrears falling, a well-prepared file for a commercial asset is competing for lender attention on pricing and terms.
Lenders are reading the tenant covenant, the lease term, the location and the business cash flow, and they still ask harder questions of marginal files while they chase the strong ones. If the property is in Victoria, our guide to commercial property finance in Melbourne covers how lenders read the city's corridors, from western industrial to inner-suburb mixed-use. For the national picture across asset classes and lender tiers, start with commercial property finance in Australia.
If you'd like to know how your purchase reads before it goes to a lender, book a 30-minute call. We'll walk through the file with you and can help you navigate the lender side from there.
We read the ABS lending release every quarter and send one letter a month with the numbers that moved. Subscribe to the monthly letter.