Login
ISCOVER
Detached houses have led a surge in new home sales in August, according to the Housing Industry Association (HIA).
HIA chief economist Dr Harley Dale said new detached house sales increased across all five states surveyed in August for a report.
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.
“Strong increases were evident in New South Wales and Western Australia – areas we expect will drive continued recovery in the coming months – as well as South Australia,” Dr Dale said.
The HIA new home sales report showed private detached house sales increased by 10.2 per cent in Western Australia, 8.2 per cent in South Australia, 7.4 per cent in New South Wales, 3.6 per cent in Queensland, and 2.4 per cent in Victoria.
According to the report, total new home sales, seasonally-adjusted, increased by 3.4 per cent in August, following the decline of 4.7 per cent experienced in July.
August's 3.4 per cent overall increase was driven by a 5.8 per cent increase in detached house sales while multi-unit sales fell by 11.2 per cent.
According to Dr Dale, “there is clear upward momentum in both new home sales and building approvals for detached houses in 2013, which is being countered to an extent by a significant downward trend for multi-units”.
Current indications are that actual new dwelling construction will fall well short of the levels the Australian economy needs the sector to achieve in 2013/2014, he added.
“We need to see this detached house trend accelerate over the remainder of 2013, while evidence of a base forming in the leading indicators for non-detached housing will also be crucial to observe,” he said.
