The major banks are taking a bigger slice of the first-home buyer market, believes Property Observer.

The big banks are responsible for four out of five first-home buyer home loans, according to research data published by AFG.

The AFG Mortgage Index showed that first-home buyer home loans processed by non-major lenders dropped by 21.8% in February from 24.8% from January 2013.

Non-major lenders have traditionally been much stronger in the first-home buyer market compared with other home loan markets, such as, for renovations, investors and refinancing.

AFG sales and operations general manager Mark Hewitt said that Australia’s mortgage market is less competitive than other economies and this means it is a big concern to see the growing dominance of the big banks in the first-home buyer market.

AFG also recorded a record high number of fixed rate home loan approvals since March 2012. The number of fixed rate home loans increased 24.1% for February compared to 16.3% for January 2013.