New home sales continue to rise in April

According to the latest results of the HIA New Home Sales Report, new home sales continued to see an upward trend in April, making it a fourth consecutive monthly rise for this year.

“New homes sales have increased in each of the first four months of 2015,” commented HIA Chief Economist, Harley Dale. “While the rise of 0.6% in April was the slowest growth pace of the four months, this is still a strong result off the back of a healthy March quarter.”

The survey of Australia’s largest volume builders, reveals that the April result for total seasonally adjusted new home sales comprised two small gains, 0.4% for detached house sales and 0.9% for multi-unit sales.

“The profile for new home sales in 2015 is consistent with a new home building cycle where further upward momentum resides largely in the ‘multi-unit’ sector and where the eastern seaboard states are driving the further growth,” said Harley Dale.

He also added that, in terms of detached house sales, both New South Wales and Victoria posted monthly gains in April (as did Western Australia), although Queensland recorded a disappointing decline. Sales in South Australia continued to weaken and are at an 18-month low.

As per the report, in April 2015, private detached house sales increased by 7.2% in NSW, by 2.7% in Victoria, and by 0.9% in Western Australia. Private detached house sales dropped by 9.0% in Queensland and were down by 1.9% in South Australia.

In the April 2015 ‘quarter’, detached house sales increased in NSW (+0.5%) and Victoria (+7.4%), but declined in SA (-4.7%), Queensland (-4.4%) and WA (-1.6%).