Wholesale mortgage broker AFG has reported a 16% increase in the value of home loans granted in February, thanks to the historically low cash rate.  
 
AFG said it processed $4.3bn in home loan sales last month, which is 16% more than a year earlier. Just this week, the company’s brokers wrote $280m worth of mortgages.
 
General Manager Mark Hewitt believes RBA’s rate cut played a role in the latest results.
                                        
"February is the real start to the mortgage year and, overall, we're off to a flying start this year. I would say, based on the numbers we've seen in the last 10 days or so, it probably is a slight acceleration on what we had seen pre-Christmas," he said, as quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald.
 
The company also recorded soaring loan volumes, including 25% in NSW compared with a year ago; 21% in Victoria; 31% in South Australia and 15% in Queensland.
 
However, AFG said loan volumes have dropped in Western Australia as the region’s economy “bears the brunt of a drop in mining investment”.
 

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