New homes sales in Australia bounced back towards the end of last year after a two year low in October 2016, the latest data shows.
Annual sales increased by 6.1% in November but over the quarter they fell by 0.7% although this was only 0.2% below the same three month period in 2015, according to the report from the Housing Industry Association.
‘Following a dip to a two year low last October, the November bounce in new home sales is a reminder that the national new home construction sector remains in strong shape,’ said HIA chief economist Harley Dale.
‘The sector may have just passed its peak, but the short term outlook is a healthy one, a conclusion supported by other leading indicators such as the ABS measures of building approvals and housing finance,’ he added.
He pointed out that at this stage of the new home building cycle the figures represent a very impressive result and the market is already seeing the largest and longest national new home construction cycle in history.
‘A healthy outlook for new home construction in the first half of 2017 is good news for the Australian economy, because of the huge impact that new home construction has on broader economic activity,’ Dale explained.
‘Without the boost from housing over the last five years the domestic economy would have at some point slipped into recession. You wouldn’t want to be seeing signals of an imminent and sharp slowdown in national new home building activity, and we’re not. Looking further out, the declines in construction activity will inevitably become chunkier,’ he added.
A breakdown of the figures show that new detached house sales increased by 5.2% while sales of multi-units were up by 9.3% and they increased in four out of five mainland states in November 2016.
New South Wales was the exception with a decline of 5.9% but sales were up by 17.9% in Queensland, by 4.7% in Victoria and in Western Australia, and by 4% in South Australia.
