New home sales see strength not seen since 2008: HIA
New home sales recorded in December ensured that 2013 was a year of strong recovery, with the first annual increase seen in five years, according to new statistics from the Housing Industry Association (HIA).
HIA economist, Diwa Hopkins, said that new home sales had hit a low ebb in 2012, with the key now to keep the strong numbers through 2014. Despite this uptick, however, it does appear that there were still some negative numbers on the books.
The HIA’s New Home Sales report, which surveys Australia’s largest volume builders, saw that the total seasonally adjusted new home sales eased by 0.4% in December 2013, driven by a 6.6% decrease in multi-unit sales. However, detached house sales increased by 0.9%. Over the entire year, new home sales rose by 14.4%.
“During the final quarter of 2013, aggregate new home sales climbed by 6.3 per cent to reach a level not seen since mid-2011,” said Hopkins. This was during the time at which new sales activity was boosted by government stimulus.
“Total new home sales were largely unchanged in the month of December, however, the broader trend shows a healthy profile of recovery throughout 2013 and the underlying details are also fairly encouraging,” said Hopkins.
“The aggregate monthly decline was due to an unsurprising pull-back in multi-unit sales, following the previous month’s very strong result. Looking at detached house sales, the growth in this segment has broadened in its reach, with four out of the five surveyed states showing monthly and quarterly increases in December 2013,” she said.
Private detached house sales increased by 22.5% in South Australia, 7.3% in Western Australia, 5.8% in New South Wales and 1.5% in Queensland. However, detached house sales fell 13.4% in Victoria over the December month.