New Home Sales Post Strong Results

New home sales posted healthy growth in November 2013 said the Housing Industry Association, the  voice of Australia’s residential building industry.

“New home sales grew by 7.5 per cent in November last year, the fastest monthly growth rate since January 2010, to reach a two and a half year high,” commented HIA Chief Economist, Dr Harley Dale.

“The upward momentum evident in new home sales since the closing stages of 2012 continued late last year – that is a good sign for residential construction activity in 2014.”

“Both new home sales and private sector building approvals increased strongly over the three months to November last year, with detached housing growing by around 4 per cent according to both leading  indicators, for example,” remarked Harley Dale. “We need to see upward momentum in these leading indicators continue throughout 2014. For new home sales the first ‘milestone’ to look out for will be sales once again reaching the volumes experienced in the first half of 2011.”

“Over the three months to November 2013, the volume of detached house sales increased in all five surveyed states, while the downward trend evident in multi-unit sales has now reversed due to strong monthly outcomes in both September and November of last year,” Harley Dale noted.

In the latest HIA New Home Sales report, a survey of Australia’s largest volume builders, the healthy 7.5 per cent increase in total seasonally adjusted new home sales was driven by a 30.5 per cent jump in multi-units together with a 3.6 per cent lift in detached house sales.

In the month of November 2013 private detached house sales increased by 19.1 per cent in South Australia and were up by 8.1 per cent in New South Wales and 16.0 per cent in Queensland. Detached house sales fell in November last year in Victoria (-2.3 per cent) and Western Australia (-5.0 per cent).

Over the three months to November 2013, detached house sales increased in all five surveyed states, as was the case in the October 2013 ‘quarter’. The largest increase over the three months to

November 2013 was in South Australia (+26.8 per cent), followed by Queensland (+8.7 per cent), Victoria (+2.4 per cent), and Western Australia (+2.1 per cent). New South Wales sneaked over the line with quarterly growth of 0.1 per cent.

Source: Housing Industry Association Limited Media Release, 10 January 2014