Despite a strong showing in 2016, 2017 is telling a different tale for developers of new homes.
“The HIA New Homes Sales Report – a survey of Australia’s largest home builders showed a moderate decline of 2.2 per cent in January 2017. This weaker update does follow a relatively decent run home for new home sales in late 2016,” said HIA chief economist, Dr Harley Dale.
“Given that Australia is tailing off from the largest and longest new home building cycle in history, both the total and sub-component profiles for new home sales are still in very good shape. There aren’t many sectors punching above their weight in the nation’s economy right now, so the profile for new home sales is also good news for Australia as a whole,” said Mr Dale.
The January 2017 update for HIA’s monthly New Home Sales survey showed a decline of 1.5 per cent in detached home sales, after a fall of 1.6 per cent in December 2016; this equals a 4.0 per cent decrease since January 2016.
The sale of ‘multi-units’ also fell, by 4.3 per cent after an increase of 6.4 per cent in December 2016; but the figure is still 9 per cent higher than January 2016.
Only one state saw an increase in detached house sales, Western Australia reported a 12.1 per cent increase following on from a 9.1 decrease in December.
In the month of January 2017 detached house sales fell by 6.8 per cent in NSW, 4.1 per cent in Victoria, 2.0 per cent in Queensland, and 1.4 per cent in South Australia.
