Second sales boost driven by detached housing
A second consecutive monthly improvement in new home sales has been driven by a lift in sales of detached houses, according to the Housing Industry Association (HIA).
The HIA New Home Sales report, a survey of Australia's largest volume builders, showed a 4.7 per cent lift in new home sales in November 2012. This result was underpinned by an increase of 7.7 per cent in sales of detached houses, following a run of five consecutive monthly declines.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
In contrast, multi-unit sales declined by 6.9 per cent after a spike in October.
For investors, this means a healthy boost to the economy. Geordan Murray, economist at the Housing Industry Association, said “the importance of a broad-based rejuvenation of new home building to maintaining the health of the overall Australian economy has been widely acknowledged.”
Mr Murray said it is promising to see new home sales moving in the right direction following the lower borrowing rates and amendments to first home buyer assistance of late 2012.
“This result should provide some welcome respite,” he said. However, he added, new home sales still remain at low levels.
“The volume of sales is 15.7 per cent lower than in the same period in 2011. This overall profile shows that we have a long way to go before we could consider sales volumes to be at satisfactory levels,” Mr Murray said.
