New home sales dropped by 2.7% in November 2015, recording its third consecutive monthly decline.
The drop in new home sales was largely driven by a 15.1% drop in ‘multi-unit’ sales, the New Homes Sales Report by the Housing Industry Association (HIA) showed. Detached house sales increased by 1.1% due to a stronger November across the eastern seaboard.
However, over the three months to November last year detached house sales fell by 4.1% while the sale of multi-units dropped by 11.8%.
HIA chief economist, Dr
Harley Dale, said a number of factors were at play in the declining new home sales.
“The lagged effect of slowing population growth, an up-tick in variable mortgage costs, over-reach on the part of APRA’s credit controls, and an easing in property price growth in Sydney and Melbourne are all in play.”
But whilst new home sales are on the descent, the construction of new homes reached a record high in the September 2015 quarter.
The construction of new homes over the quarter rose 0.5% with a quarterly record of 55,532 new building starts, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This means that at the September quarter, a record 194,252 homes in total were being built – the most in Australian history. Just over 65% of the dwellings being built are apartments.
