This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
WHILE new home sales dipped over the month to July, sales in the three months to July 2024 were up 11.1% than this time last year.
According to the HIA New Home Sales report for July, new home sales were down by 41% for the month but were well up on 2023 numbers from this period.
“This is consistent with our expectations that detached home building will pick up pace in the second half of 2024,” said Maurice Tapang, economist at HIA.
Queensland led increases with a 15.6% increase in new home sales for the month, with sales over the last three months up 60.1% on the same time last year.
In South Australia, sales were up 55.8% in the three months to July compared to last year, while over the same period Western Australia was up 1.4%.
“New home sales in Western Australia remain elevated, despite a fall in recent months, as this market is constrained only by the capacity of the industry, not demand,” added Tapang.
While New South Wales saw a 17.5% rise over the period compared to 2023, Victoria recorded a 13.3% drop over the same period.
“Sales of new homes in New South Wales and Victoria are continuing to bounce along the bottom of their respective cycles,” said Tapang.
“The rise in interest rates hurts these markets, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, more significantly due to the higher costs of land. These sales figures suggest that the improved number of homes commencing construction across Australia will be driven by smaller markets outside of Sydney and Melbourne.”
This comes as new listings picked up in line with with the weather, up 14.9% over the year to July, while Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra saw record rises of 18.4%, 27.9% and 33.9% respectively, according to the latest data from Domain.
While the latest data from PropTrack showed the national rental vacancy rate held relatively steady over July, dropping 0.01 percentage points to 1.42%.
