Home lending activity continues to slide, with new ABS figures showing sharp falls across several key categories.

Over the past year, loans for new home construction dropped 6.1 per cent, while lending for the purchase of newly built homes plunged 20.7 per cent. Residential land purchases were also down 6.0 per cent compared with the June 2024 quarter.

The only bright spot was a 6.8 per cent rise in lending for home alterations, additions and repairs. Investor lending fell more sharply than owner-occupier loans.

In separate data, construction sector wages rose 3.2 per cent in the year to June 2025, just under the 3.4 per cent increase across the wider economy. Since before the pandemic, hourly construction wages have climbed 18.2 per cent, slightly ahead of the economy-wide growth of 18.0 per cent.