New home sales declined 6.1 per cent during September 2017, following a decline that started in 2015, according to the HIA.
The results are according to the latest edition of the HIA New Home Sales Report which gauges sales activity in residential building across the five largest states.
During September 2017, new detached house sales fell by 4.5 with a reduction of 16.7 per cent on the multi-unit side of the market.
“The decline in home sales over the past 18 months reflects the slowing in output across the economy and is a guide to short term activity in the residential building industry,” said HIA Senior Economist, Shane Garrett.
“New home sales is a leading indicator of approvals data and shows that building activity peaked in March 2016 following the longest ever upturn in new home building.
“This process of adjustment will involve quite sizeable reductions both in building activity on the ground. We expect that activity will bottom out sometime in 2019 with a recovery then setting in – assuming the economy reverts to its long-term average growth rate of around 3 per cent,” concluded Shane Garrett.
During September 2017, NSW was the only state to see growth in new detached house sales (+3.7 per cent) compared with August.
WA experienced the largest reduction in sales during September (-15.1 per cent) followed by Queensland (-8.7 per cent). New detached house sales also fell in Victoria (-2.3 per cent) and SA (-1.7 per cent) during September.
