The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics housing finance figures suggest the residential property market is being dominated by investors, with very little activity at the first-home buyer end of the market.The value of new housing finance commitments rose by 2.7 per cent in July, compared with the previous month (in seasonally adjusted terms).Lenders made housing finance commitments worth A$28.6 billion in July, compared with $27.8 billion in June. The July figure was up 17.4 per cent on July last year.Investors accounted for all of that growth: the value of new finance commitments to property investors rose 6.8 per cent in July, while the value of commitments to owner-occupiers was unchanged. Twelve months ago, loans to property investors made up 36.5 per cent of total housing finance commitments. Today the proportion is 40.3 per cent.Last month, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority reported that investment loans accounted for 33.8 per cent of total residential loans in the June quarter. This proportion was up 3.3 per cent since the March quarter and up 10.9 per cent since the June quarter last year.According to the ABS, first-home buyer participation fell to 12.2 per cent, which is a 12-month low. The first-home buyer numbers need to be read with caution, since the ABS announced earlier this year it was investigating the validity of its data in this area (including the possibility that a growing number of first-home buyers were entering the market as investors).The number of new finance commitments for owner-occupiers rose 0.3 per cent in July.The average loan size rose from $327,000 to $327,500.