- Boom in detached home building will continue until second half of 2022, HIA says
- Sales are lower than same time last year
- Significantly higher than the same period in 2019 and 2018, however
Despite the federal government’s HomeBuilder program ending earlier this year, new home sales remained strong in August, according to the Housing Industry Association (HIA).
In August, new home sales were up 5.8% seasonally adjusted.
“The strength in New Home Sales in recent months indicates that the boom in detached home building will continue to create strong employment opportunities into the second half of 2022,” said HIA Economist Tom Devitt.
The findings come from the HIA New Home Sales report, a monthly survey of the largest volume home builders across the five largest states, which is used as an indicator of future detached home construction.
Although the levels remained strong last month, they are not at the record levels seen towards the end of HomeBuilder in March 2021.
Private New House Sales- seasonally adjusted
“Sales in the three months to August 2021 were 15.5 per cent lower than the same time in 2020,” explained Mr Devitt.
When compared to pre-pandemic times, the past three months have seen sales 15.4% higher than the same period in 2019 and 4.5% compared to 2018.
“This strength in sales of new detached homes is likely due to increased household savings during the pandemic.
“There has also been a switch in market preference toward lower density homes as working from home becomes entrenched,” concluded Mr Devitt.
Western Australia led the pack during the three months to August, with new home sales up 60% compared to 2019, followed by New South Wales (28.1%) and Victoria (6.7%).
Queensland and South Australia both recorded declines of 1.5% and 15.2% respectively.
