Australian Finance Group today said the number of loans arranged by the firm rose by 36.8% in February to 7673 loans, valued at $2.67bn.

Of those, 26.1% were taken out by first-home buyers, up from 25.8% in January. That compared to February last year, when the number of loans AFG sold rose 17% in the month to 7574, with only 11.5% going to first-home buyers.

However, AFG general manager of sales and operations Mark Hewitt warned that if the government grant top-up was not extended, the market may be heading for a cliff by the 30 June deadline.

The Australian