New home sales barely rise in February says HIA

Figures from the Housing Industry Association (HIA) have shown that new home sales have barely risen in February.

New home sales have only risen 0.2%, with almost no movement in the sales of detached and multi-unit homes.

“There was very little movement in the two sub-series with detached house sales ticking down by 0.1% in February and the sales of ‘multi-units’ growing by 1%,” said HIA Chief Economist, Dr Haley Dale.

The barely perceptible rise in new home sales is largely due to the jump in sales of detached homes in Western Australia and Victoria, balanced with a new home sale decrease in other states.

“Detached house sales in WA increased by 11.3% in February 2017 following a rise of 12.1% in January,” said Dr Haley Dale.

Victoria saw a more modest rise of detached house sales of 5.1% in February.

Other states did not fare so well in February. New South Wales saw a 12.6% decrease in detached house sales and the figures fell in Queensland by 5.7%. South Australia experienced the most mild fall, with sales down by 0.2%.

Dr Dale is not surprised by the figures, as they match the data released by both the HIA and ABS on current housing sales.

“The updates that we are receiving for these two key leading indicators of new home building activity are consistent with a modest reduction in national new detached house commencements in 2016/17,” said Dr Dale.

Despite the small rise in house sales, the HIA has forecast a decline of 2% for new detached houses being built in in 2016/17.