Australia's home loan approvals fell in January for the first time since March 2011, according to data released on Tuesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics ( ABS).

The number of home loan approvals in Australia fell 1.2 percent in January to 47,768, the ABS reported.

Economists' forecasts had centered on housing finance commitments to be flat in January.The ABS data also show that total value of dwelling finance commitments fell 2.3 percent to 20. 73 billion AU dollars (21.88 billion U.S. dollars).

Economists believe January's decline in home loan approvals was unlikely to worry the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

"I think the moderate pace of approvals in home loans is probably one of those things the Reserve Bank wouldn't mind too much given that the level of construction activity remains relatively weak," Commonwealth Bank senior economist Michael Workman told the Australian Associated Press (AAP).

Australia's financial services provider CMC Markets chief market strategist Michael McCarthy said January's data was not overly surprising.

"I'd expect to see a rebound in the February reading, particularly on that investment lending," he said.

McCarthy said he would also expect investors to return to the property market over the course of 2012.