The Housing Industry Associations (HIA) released its November 2011 New Home Sales report today, a survey of Australia’s 100 largest builders.
According to the HIA:
- Total seasonally adjusted sales increased by 6.8%
- October figures were revised down to 2.8% gain
- Detached house sales increased by 9.8%, mainly through NSW and Victoria
- Multi-unit sales dropped by 17%
- Volumes rose in NSW (22.8%) Victoria (11.6%) Western Australia (5.7%) Queensland (4.7%)
- Volumes fell in South Australia (11.3%)
HIA Chief Economist, Harley Dale stated:
This is a healthier but not unexpected result. Only two months earlier in September 2011, detached house sales plumbed an 11 year low. From this parlous starting position, and with speculation regarding a rate cut mounting and then delivered upon, anything other than some recovery in sales volumes would have been surprising, not to mention highly disturbing
With falling interest rates, a competitive building market, and a greater availability of skilled trades amidst still very soft overall demand conditions, now is clearly a good time to build a new home for those who are financially set to take that decision.
Or they could just buy from the current stock of unsold homes on the market (SQM Research):
2011-11 NHSS National Media Release