New home sales continue on a steady path
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Dec 5, 2019
New home sales continue on a steady path
Home sales have remained steady in the last quarter, according to the latest HIA report.
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HIAAngela Lillicrap, economist with the Housing Industry Association.
The last six months has seen a stabilising of prices in the new home sales and housing finance area, according to the Housing Industry Association.
HIA Economist Angela Lillicrap said the HIA New Home Sales report – a monthly survey of the largest volume home builders in the five largest states – is a leading indicator of future trends in the residential building industry.
“New home sales remained steady in the three months to October compared to the previous three months and are now only 3.1 per cent lower than this time last year when the market began to cool,” said Ms Lillicrap.
Source: HIA
“At this time last year the market for new homes was cooling rapidly. Sales have now returned to levels similar to this time last year.
“Both this ‘New Home Sales’ report and the ABS Housing Finance data suggest that the bottom of this cycle occurred in April 2019, with signs of an improvement since then.
“There are no indications that new home sales are returning to the levels experienced in the boom years of 2015 to 2017, but the improvement over the past 6 months suggests that this downturn will not be deep, in comparison to previous cycles.
Ms Lillicrap said wider economic conditions remain positive, just not as buoyant as the market has come to expect.
"Exports are continuing to exceed all forecasts, unemployment remains stable and the number of people participating in the labour market has been growing which is an indicator of a healthy labour market."
Across the country, new home sales were relatively flat in Western Australia (0.0 per cent), Victoria (-1.2 per cent) and South Australia (-1.0 per cent) compared to the previous three month period.
Queensland increased by 5.7 per cent while New South Wales declined by 4.9 per cent for the three months to October 2019.
You can review the report here.
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