The Data: Coverage, Periodicity, and Timeliness

Coverage characteristics

Data are published as end of week figures in millions of New Zealand dollars for the value of approvals, and nominal number for the number of approvals.

The surveyed data for table C16 are as at the Friday of the week. The time series for weekly housing loan approvals begin at 31 October 2003.

Seven Registered banks respond to the survey. These banks represent over 99% of Registered bank lending for housing, and approximately 94% of total housing lending as produced in Table C6 – Total household claims.

Periodicity

Weekly

Timeliness

Released on the third business day of the week after the end of the reference week.

Access by the public

Advance release calendar

The “Advance Release Calendar” is updated if necessary each Friday. This is a long-term plan of scheduled releases.

Simultaneous release to all interested parties

The full C16 table is published on the Bank’s website. All releases are made as close to 3pm as possible. The data are released on the third business day of the week after the end of the reference week.

Integrity

Dissemination of terms and conditions under which official statistics are produced, including confidentiality of individual responses

Data are collected under Section 36 of The Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1989.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand publishes only aggregated data. Individual institutional data remain confidential subject to the Bank’s legal obligations.

Provision of information about revisions and advance notice of major changes in methodology

Provisional data are italicised. Data are deemed provisional when a series is under review. New data are in bold font in the latest release. Revisions are generally published when tables are updated and released, and are marked in bold. Should revisions need to be made more promptly, a “Special Note” is posted on the website table and noted in “Revisions to Tables”.

Quality

Dissemination of documentation on methodology and sources used in preparing statistics

Unlike other RBNZ surveys, there is no set template completed by all responding institutions for housing loan approvals.

Information on the compilation of experimental housing loan approvals aggregates can be found in the series description

Dissemination of other data that support statistical cross-check and provide assurance of reasonableness

Housing loan approvals provide an indication of changes to the stock of outstanding housing loans, by representing the value of new loans being added to the stock, subject to the inclusions and exclusions in approvals, as noted in the series description.

The stock of outstanding housing loans are reported in Table C6 – Total household claims.