Robust increase in new house sales for Queensland and New South Wales

Queensland and New South Wales had robust increases in new house sales occurred during May, with sharp contractions in Victoria and WA according to the Housing Industry Association.

The HIA’s latest New Homes Sales Report found large increases in Queensland and New South Wales drove new home sales higher for the second consecutive month during May 2017, with substantial reductions in new detached house sales occurring in several states during the month.

Shane Garrett, HIA senior economist said the results for May again demonstrate how stark the differences currently are across Australia’s markets. 

“The latest results contained in the HIA New Home Sales Report are consistent with our updated forecasts released in last week’s HIA National Outlook report," he said.

"A modest contraction will continue to occur in detached house starts across Australia up until the end of the decade whilst a much bigger reduction in multi-unit commencements is anticipated to continue over the coming years as activity retreats from the unprecedented levels of recent years.

“Yesterday’s Census results from the ABS underline that the objective of meeting Australia’s housing needs over the long term is becoming increasingly challenging. With new home building set to reduce, it is important that government policies focus on allowing our industry to deliver the requisite supply of new housing in an affordable fashion.

"During the month of May 2017, total new home sales increased by 1.1 percent.

"This was helped by a 2.2 percent increase in new detached house sales although multi-unit sales were down by 2.6 percent during the month. Queensland experienced the largest increase in new detached house sales during the month (+31.1 percent) followed by NSW (+16.8 percent). The largest reduction in sales occurred in South Australia (-15.6 percent). Reductions also affected the markets of Victoria (-14.7 percent) and Western Australia (-3.4 percent)."