Login
ISCOVER
A decline in new home sales during September was reflected in both the detached and non-detached segments of the market, according to the Housing Industry Association (HIA).
The association’s most recent New Home Sales Report showed that sales declined by four per cent for the month, with the level of activity down 5.2 per cent from the April peak.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
The report also found that detached house sales declined in four out of the five mainland states during September.
South Australia saw the biggest drop (19.8 per cent), followed by Western Australia (8.6 per cent), Queensland (5.9 per cent) and NSW (0.5 per cent). Detached house sales increased by 3.1 per cent during the month in Victoria.
“Following the peak level of sales that occurred in April this year, sales activity has trended lower only very modestly. This augurs well for actual new home building activity in 2015-16,” HIA economist Diwa Hopkins said.
Ms Hopkins noted that a record level of building activity could have been achieved this financial year – and could have been of strong benefit to the broader domestic economy – but increasingly restrictive credit conditions are likely to curtail the boom in new home building.
“The deterioration in credit conditions is likely to weigh more heavily on new home building activity beyond 2015-16,” she said.
“We have therefore pared back our forecasts for activity over our forecast horizon beyond the end of the current financial year.”
[Related: Land market conditions ease]
