Westpac's Mortgage Volume Decline Accelerated After Tax Proposals
By Stuart Condie
SYDNEY--Australia's Westpac said the number of mortgage applications it receives has dropped since the start of the Middle East conflict, and that the decline accelerated after the government flagged changes to tax concessions.
Westpac, which is the country's second-largest bank by market capitalization, on Thursday said it was receiving an average 30,000 home-loan applications each month so far in its fiscal third quarter, which began April 1.
That was down by 9.1% from the 33,000 monthly average received for the prior quarter. Westpac received an average 35,000 applications in the three months through December, which was its last full quarter prior to the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February.
The lender said volumes had declined further since Australia's federal government said it wanted to change the way capital gains are taxed, a move that economists and analysts have said would make property less attractive to investors.
Westpac said applications were tracking at a monthly run rate of 27,000 since the May 12 federal budget.
Write to Stuart Condie at stuart.condie@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 10, 2026 18:51 ET (22:51 GMT)
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