The drop in lending to investors over August is in stark contrast to the 6.8 per cent rise recorded for July. Despite the unexpected slide, investors still account for around half of total housing loan approvals, excluding refinancing, said ANZ economists David Cannington. "This is the highest share on record and it has risen from around 40 per cent when the RBA started cutting rates in November 2011," he said. Meanwhile, the latest survey of investor intentions by Investment Trends has found that more respondents planned to sell than buy an investment property in the coming month. Since the index's inception in September 2011, those who have said they intended to buy have consistently outnumbered those who say they planned to sell.

"For the first time there's actually a negative intention," Investment Trends senior analyst Recep Peker said. But Lonsec head of direct assets Kevin Prosser said he didn't believe there had been a noticeable change in mood among property investors. "I don't think it's tipped greatly," Mr Prosser said. "The outlook is certainly for another six to 12 months of rates staying where they are; that to me is the critical factor, and/or the economy, if jobs start disappearing." Mr Prosser did concede that recent press coverage and cautionary comments from the Reserve Bank of Australia may have had an impact on sentiment.

"It can set a mood," he said. At a Sydney conference on Thursday the Reserve Bank of Australia's head of financial stability Luci Ellis also noted that close to half of all new net housing finance was for investors.



"That share is noticeably higher than rental housing's share of the housing stock, even allowing for a possible faster rate of churn in investor loans," she said. "Obviously, that can't continue forever," Ms Ellis said. Ray White real estate agent Cameron Airlie said on both the buy and sell side of the market remained strong. "There are some homes that are selling pre-auction and off-market and not even going online or in the paper," he said. Mr Airlie said that overall, it was a seller's market.

"It's definitely stronger selling because there's a plethora of buyers out there," he said. The only change in sentiment Mr Airlie said he was seeing was among those who had "more difficult" houses to sell, who were seeing the benefit of a strong market and were able to move their houses relatively quickly. Meriton Group national sales manager James Sialepis said his company wasn't experiencing any significant increase in investor selling, nor any let-up in investor buying. But he said Meriton could be immune due to its concentration in Sydney and Gold Coast markets. "We've actually seen investors increase as a percentage [of total sales]," Mr Sialepis said.

"Overall numbers are up from investors." Economists views were mixed after the release of Friday's home loan data, but many saw a more subdued outlook for property. JP Morgan economist Ben Jarman said that while one month didn't amount to a trend, RBA rhetoric could be having an impact."RBA officials would … be unlikely to declare victory on one month's worth of data, but it does appear that the trend in investor lending is decelerating," Mr Jarman said in a note released Friday. Westpac economist Matthew Hassan said the loan figures confirmed a tempering in investment demand. "The investor segment remains harder to predict, although the August data suggests recent renewed strength in this area is not quite as explosive as the original July figures had indicated," Mr Hassan said.