New home sales fall steepens

Thursday 3 December 2015

From the HIA:

In a rare departure in timing, the October 2015 HIA New Home Sales Report postdates the release of ABS Building Approvals for the same month. The results are comparable to an extent. Total seasonally adjusted HIA private sector new home sales fell by 3.0 per cent in October 2015. The equivalent building approvals measure increased by 4.1 per cent, but because of a large rise in approvals for ‘other dwellings’.

It appears as though new home sales peaked for the cycle back in April 2015. While less discernible, private sector building approvals may well have hit their high in July. While there are understandable monthly differences between the two series, the trend for detached houses is modestly downward. HIA detached house sales fell by 4.1 per cent in October this year, having peaked in April 2014. Sales were down in four out of five mainland states.

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About the author

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.