The demand for the home loans in Australia was reported down by 1.8% in the month of February, according to the data released by Australian Bureau of Statistics today. This was reported the fifth consecutive monthly decline for the demand of home loans. The decline in the month of February was mainly attributable to the three official interest rate rises last year.

ABS said today that only 50287 new mortgages were issued in the month of February in Australia, decreasing by 1.8% compared to January. The decline in February missed the estimates of the economists who expected a decline of 1% in the month.

Also in trend terms, the total value of new home loans excluding alterations and additions declined by 2.1% in February. Trend term is a more reliable indicator of underlying movement in the data, according to the ABS. ABS said that the Reserve Bank's interest rate increases of late last year impacted the demand for home loans badly.

According to the data, loans for home construction were reported down by 3% and loans for an established house declined by 1.8% in the month of February. However, the loans for the purchase of new houses were reported up by 0.7% in February. The data also revealed that only 2.1% of the all loans were at fixed interest rates.