Investors increased their domination of the housing loan market in September.

For the first time, investors grabbed more than half the new loans approved in a month.

Loans approved for investors rose to $11.9 billion in September, from $11.5 billion in August, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

That’s 50.3 per cent of the September total of $23.71 billion, up from 49.9 per cent in August.

At the same time, the share going to first home buyers remained low.

At 8.3 per cent of non-refinancing loans in September, it was not much over the record low of 7.8 per cent set in February, and little more than half the long-run average of 15.2 per cent for the 20 years ending in 2013.

The good news is the value of lending slated for new and to-be-built homes was steady at $3.6 billion in September.

This category of lending had trended up from late 2012, after stalling at around $2.5 billion a month from early 2010.

So the unusually long period of very low interest rates is having the desired effect on real economic activity, pumping an extra $1 billion or more into the market for new homes every month.

But the figures will most probably reinforce the apparent need for the Reserve Bank of Australia and Australian Prudential Regulation Authority to use their regulatory powers – so-called macroprudential regulation – to restrain lending to investors without choking off loans to homebuyers.