From the HIA today:
The month of May saw new home sales increase for a third consecutive month, by 1.6 per cent, taking monthly sales back to their highest level in 18 months. Detached house sales posted modest growth of 0.9 per cent through gains occurring in three out of five mainland states – New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. Meanwhile, multi-unit sales posted a stronger result – an increase of 5.7 per cent, however this only partially recovered the previous month’s fall of 9.4 per cent. Overall, multi-unit sales have improved significantly from the record low levels in 2010-11.
…In the month of May 2013 detached house sales increased by 4.3 per cent in New South Wales, 8.8 per cent in Victoria, and 6.9 per cent in South Australia. Detached house sales fell by 2.2 per cent in Queensland and by 10.3 per cent in Western Australia. Over the three months to May 2013, new house sales increased in almost all of the surveyed states – NSW(+21.5 per cent), Victoria (+9.2 per cent), SA (+8.6 per cent) and WA (+0.1 per cent). The exception was Queensland, where sales were down by 0.4 per cent.
Here’s the headline chart showing the grinding recovery:
But the mix is not so encouraging with house sales plateauing:
And the result driven again by apartments,which had a better month but are trending lower:
It’s good to see another month of rising sales and the mix is definitely showing a rebound in the East as the West comes off but it’s still muted, off a low base and not enough.
