‘There has been strong upward momentum to new home sales since the record lows plumbed in 2012. One monthly fall, while disappointing, does not really change the story,’ said HIA chief economist, Harley Dale.
‘That having been said, the re-emergence of a sustained decline for new home sales over the second half of the year would obviously be a negative signal for residential construction and the wider Australian economy,’ he added.
The HIA New Home Sales report, a survey of Australia's largest volume builders, showed that total seasonally adjusted new home sales fell by 4.7% in July 2013. This was the first decline in total sales since a drop of 5.3% back in February.
Detached house sales fell by 6.4% in July, which was also the first decline since February when detached house sales slipped by 4%. Conversely, sales of multi units posted a monthly rise of 7.2% following a sharp fall of 17.5% in June.
‘What we need to observe over the remainder of this year is strong growth in new home sales volumes. To date, what we have seen is a recovery from a very low base which takes sales volumes back to levels that are reasonable, but still well short of healthy,’ explained Dale.
‘It remains the case that detached house sales are running well below long term average levels in four out of five mainland states. The aggregate multi unit sales measure is in a similar position of under performance,’ he said.
‘To be confident that actual new home construction will grow in 2013/2014, we need to see clear and consistent evidence of further upward momentum in leading indicators such as new home sales,’ he added.
In the month of July 2013 detached house sales fell by 4.2% in New South Wales, by 10.5% in Victoria, by 9.6% in South Australia, and by 10.8% in Western Australia.
Detached house sales increased by 12.6% in Queensland in July following three consecutive months of decline.
