HIA New Home sales for June are out and show a modest improvement:
New home sales increased for a second consecutive month in June 2012 due to a spurt in multi-units, said the Housing Industry Association, the voice of Australia’s residential building industry. The HIA New Home Sales report, a survey of Australia’s largest volume builders, showed a rise of 2.8 per cent in June 2012 due to a 15.7 per cent jump in the sales of multi-units. Detached house sales continued their disappointing run in 2012, growing by only 0.7 per cent in June following a decline of 2.0 per cent in May.
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In June 2012 the number of seasonally adjusted new detached house sales increased by 2.0 per cent in
New South Wales, 4.4 per cent in South Australia, and 23.5 per cent in Western Australia. Detached
house sales fell by 9.6 per cent in Victoria and by 11.0 per cent in Queensland. Over the June 2012
quarter detached house sales fell in New South Wales (-6.2 per cent), Queensland (-21.1 per cent), and
South Australia (-8.3 per cent). Detached house sales increased by 9.8 per cent in Victoria due to a final
burst from first time buyers in April and May ahead of the ending of the state boost. In Western Australia
detached house sales increased by 9.3 per cent over the June quarter, but problems with the building
act means this improvement will not translate into construction activity any time soon.
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
