Detached house sales increased by 19.7% in Victoria, by 7.1% in Western Australia, by 3.9% in New South Wales, and by 0.5% in South Australia. Detached house sales fell by 11% in Queensland.
Detached house sales are leading the way in the longer term, up by 7.3% at the end of last financial year, but multi unit sales dropped by 17.5%.
‘Detached housing has gained momentum as non detached housing, primarily mid/high density product, has lost momentum over 2013 to date,’ said Harley Dale, chief economist of the Housing Industry Association, the voice of Australia’s residential building industry.
‘Last financial year was a tale of two halves for new home sales. The first stanza was dominated by weakening detached house sales up against stronger multi unit sales, the latter marked by an improving detached house segment occurring as the multi unit market lost momentum,’ he explained.
The leading home building indicators of both new home sales and building approvals are highlighting this trend,’ he added.
The overall result was that new home sales fell by 4.3% in 2012/13 when compared to the 2011/12 financial year. ‘Given it was a weaker year overall for new home sales it has been very encouraging to observe upward momentum build as we moved through 2012/13,’ Dale pointed out.
‘There is still a long way to go. New home sales volumes are 27% down on their long term average. A range of leading indicators beyond just new home sales are yet to provide evidence of Australia approaching the healthy and geographically broad based new home building levels required by our growing population and transitioning economy,’ he said.
