According to the Housing Industry Association’s (HIA) New Home Sales Report for July this year, the sale of new homes seems to be trending downwards slightly following an apparent peak in April.
“Total seasonally adjusted new home sales eased by 0.4% in July this year, but remain in strong shape,” HIA chief economist Harley Dale said.
“New home sales are spending mid 2015 drifting along at a historically high level. It appears that the cyclical peak for total new home sales occurred in April, but the subsequent downward trend is very mild,” Dr Dale said.
Dr Dale said forecasts don’t point towards the construction of new homes growing during the 2015/16 financial year, however there is no reason to panic about the health of the sector.
“Key leading indicators of home building, including HIA New Home Sales, suggest little prospect for further growth in new home construction in 2015/16.
“However, following three consecutive years of strong growth which has propped up the domestic economy considerably, both HIA New Home Sales and ABS Building Approvals signal another healthy year for new home construction in 2015/16.”
Over the three months to July this year detached house sales fell by 2.8% to be 3.4% lower when compared to the three months to July 2014.
Multi-unit sales peaked in May this year and fell by 4.2% in July following a decline of 2.9% in June.
Over the three months to July this year multi-unit sales increased by 8.3%, but it was the strength of the May result that drove the quarterly outcome.
In the month of July 2015 detached house sales increased by 4.2% in New South Wales. Detached house sales fell by 2.3% in Victoria and by 4.9% in Western Australia.
Sales were close to flat for the month in Queensland (-0.6%) and South Australia (-0.2%).
