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Staff Reporter
There was a nine per cent on-month rise in the number of new dwelling purchases in April, according to new Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures.
The latest housing finance statistics showed that total value of dwelling finance was up by 1.2 per cent when compared to March, while the number of finance commitments rose marginally by 0.2 per cent.
The number of loans for new dwellings surged by 9.3 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms, with around 200 more new dwellings bought when compared to March.
Economist Dr Harley Dale said the Housing Institute of Australia (HIA) was glad to finally see some positive figures.
“Given contemporary weakness in new home construction activity, it is encouraging to see a second consecutive, albeit modest rise in this leading housing indicator.”
“The number of loans for new housing has largely been bouncing along a bottom for over a year now, but hopefully that situation is coming to an end.” he said.
The struggling housing sector has recently been recognised as one of the worst affected sectors of the two-speed economy.
“The National Accounts update of earlier in the week signalled new housing as the weakest sector in the Australian economy. We need to be seeing a strong recovery across all leading indicators to avoid the prospect of housing activity falling throughout 2012.
“We perhaps have the makings of a mild recovery with housing finance, but there is no evidence elsewhere,” said Dr Dale.
The total number of loans for construction eased by 0.6 per cent in April 2012, seasonally adjusted, but was up by 4.0 per cent over the three months to April.
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