New home sales fall to lowest in two years

New home sales fall to lowest in two years
Staff ReporterDecember 7, 2020

New home sales fell to a two year low during October according to The Housing Industry Association.

HIA senior economist Shane Garrett said sales fell by 8.5 percent, the lowest volume of sales since July 2014,

Sales on both sides of the market saw sizeable reductions during October,he said.

“Detached house sales were down by 8.2 percent during the month, while multi-unit sales fell by 9.2 percent.

The reduction in the volume of new home sales is not unexpected, given that Australia is coming to the end of its longest and strongest new home building upturn.

“October’s new home sales results are consistent with HIA’s latest forecasts for new home building starts which foresee a reasonably marked reduction in activity over the next couple of years. Even so, activity is projected to fall to a low point of around 172,000 new dwellings starts during 2018/19, about the same as the average of the past decade,” concluded Shane Garrett.

"During October 2016, detached house sales fell in three of the five mainland states covered by the report.

"The largest reduction in sales volumes during the month was in Victoria (-20.4 percent), with new detached house sales also falling in Western Australia (-5.6 percent) and New South Wales (-2.8 percent). New detached house sales rose by 4.5 percent in Queensland during October, with a slight increase of 0.8 percent in South Australia."

Click to enlarge

Editor's Picks