New home sales fell 3.7 per cent in July in seasonally-adjusted terms. The number of detached house sales fell a modest 0.4 per cent, but apartment sales plummeted 15.7 per cent.

“A drop in new apartment sales has contributed to the continuing decline in new home sales nationally since they peaked in mid 2015,” said HIA’s principal economist, Tim Reardon.

Sales for the first seven months of 2017 are 4.6 per cent lower than for the same period last year.

Source: HIA.

"Home sales are understandably easing to more ‘normal’ levels," said Craig James, chief economist CommSec, adding that "activity will continue to vary substantially across regions."

“This trend is consistent with HIA’s expectation that activity will decline modestly from these record high levels over a number of years,” said Reardon.

“Victoria was the notable exception – as the only state to grow sales during July 2017. Sales were up by 9.8 per cent on what is already a very high level of activity," said Reardon.

“On the other hand, the Western Australian Government’s First Home Buyers grant ended on 30 June 2017 and as a consequence sales in July fell sharply from what was already a very low base," he said. 

In July, detached house sales fell in:

• South Australia (-16.2 per cent)
• Queensland (-16.1 per cent)
• Western Australia (-9.1 per cent)
• New South Wales (-5.2 per cent)

The HIA New Home Sales report is a monthly survey of Australia's largest 100 home builders, which covers around 14 per cent of the residential construction industry.

Click here to download an extract of the HIA New Home Sales Report.

Read more about Australian new home building and sales:

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New home building stalled in May

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