The total number of new home loans in Australia was up a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent on month in January, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Friday - coming in at 54,953.
That beat expectations for a decline of 1.0 percent following the downwardly revised 0.2 percent gain in December (originally 0.4 percent).
The value of loans eased 0.2 percent to A$20.128 billion after climbing 1.3 percent a month earlier.
Investment lending jumped 4.2 percent to A$13.784 billion after sliding 1.0 percent in the previous month.
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