There may have been a recent surge in building approvals, but it sure ain’t happening in sales. After a brief pop in August, September approvals have slumped to another new cycle low. From the HIA:
New home sales declined in September with detached house sales posting their lowest monthly level since December 2000, said the Housing Industry Association, the voice of Australia’s residential building industry.
The latest HIA – JELD-WEN New Home Sales Report, a survey of Australia’s major residential builders, showed that the number of new homes sold in the month of September fell by 3.5 per cent to be down by 14.0 per cent over the September quarter.
…Detached house sales fell by 3.3 per cent in the month of September 2011 to be down by 15.3 per cent over the September quarter. Sales of multi-units fell by 5.5 per cent in September.
“The volume of detached house sales improved in Queensland with a rise of 5.7 per cent in September, but sales fell in each of the other four mainland states,” said Andrew Harvey. “Victoria posted the largest monthly fall with sales declining by 6.6 per cent in September”.
In terms of the other states, detached house sales fell by 4.7 per cent in New South Wales, 5.9 per cent in South Australia, and 3.5 per cent in Western Australia.
This is a poor result following a string of poor results. I can’t but wonder, too, if it doesn’t indicate that the recent little rays of sunshine appearing over the housing market more broadly in August weren’t false signals and have now disappeared under the ceaseless rain of troubling international news.
