New home sales regained some lost ground in August 2013 due to an encouraging lift for detached houses, the Housing Industry Association reported this week.
“Detached house sales experienced a synchronised increase across the five surveyed states in the month of August 2013, a positive update for the new home construction outlook,” said HIA Chief Economist, Dr Harley Dale.
“Strong increases were evident in New South Wales and Western Australia – areas we expect will drive continued recovery in the coming months – as well as South Australia.”
The HIA New Home Sales report, a survey of Australia's largest volume builders, showed that total seasonally adjusted new home sales increased by 3.4 per cent in August 2013 following a decline of 4.7 per cent in July.
The rise was driven by a 5.8 per cent increase in detached house sales. Conversely, multi-unit sales fell by 11.2 per cent in August.
“There is clear upward momentum in both new home sales and building approvals for detached houses in 2013, which is being countered to an extent by a significant downward trend for multi-units,” commented Harley Dale.
“We need to see this detached house trend accelerate over the remainder of 2013, while evidence of a base forming in the leading indicators for non-detached housing will also be crucial to observe,” added Harley Dale.
“Current indications are that actual new dwelling construction will fall well short of the levels the Australian economy needs the sector to achieve in 2013/14.”
In the month of August 2013 private detached house sales increased by 10.2 per cent in Western Australia, 8.2 per cent in South Australia, 7.4 per cent in New South Wales, 3.6 per cent in Queensland, and 2.4 per cent in Victoria.