New home sales decreased in April as the HomeBuilder scheme ended, according to new data from the Housing Industry Association (HIA).
Angela Lillicrap, economist at HIA, said that new home sales “fell in April 2021 to be 54.4% lower than March as HomeBuilder came to an end.”
The figures are from HIA’s new home sales report – a monthly survey of the largest volume home builders in the five largest states and an indicator of future detached home construction.
Despite the decrease in new home sales, Lillicrap said that the result for April 2021 “is an encouragingly strong result.”
“It suggests that there is a significant volume of new homes to be built for customers not eligible for HomeBuilder,” said Lillicrap. “Despite being well below recent peaks, sales in April 2021 are just 2.7% lower than the average month prior to the COVID shock.”
“There is an unprecedented volume of building starts set to occur in 2021,” Lillicrap added. “HomeBuilder and lower interest rates have facilitated in a surge in demand for detached homes that ensures a record number of new detached homes will be built this year and into 2022. A cooling in sales is to be expected as the grants available through the HomeBuilder program came to an end in March.”
