New home sales have risen to their highest level in four years, according to a new report by a leading property association.
The Housing Industry Association’s New Home Sales report reveals that total seasonally adjusted new home sales increased by 4.4% over March – the largest volume since 2010.
The March result for total sales consists of an 11.3% rise in multi-unit sales and a 2.6% rise in detached housing.
HIA economist Diwa Hopkins says that the residential construction sector continues to be the main bright spot in the broader domestic economy, however, the growth needs to be more broad based across the entire residential property market.
“The monthly rise in both detached and multi-unit segments of the market is an encouraging result. However, the broader trend is that growth over the past year has been driven by multi-unit sales, while detached home sales have tracked sideways,” she said.
“Lower lending rates will provide added support to residential construction activity, which is emerging as a key area of growth mitigating the effects of the downturn in mining and investment construction.”
In March 2015, private detached home sales increased by 5.9% in Victoria, 4.2% in NSW and also 4.2% in WA. Private detached home sales declined by 5.8% in SA and 2.3% in QLD.
