Newly built homes sales slowed in April: HIA

A report from the Housing Industry Association (HIA) has recorded a 1.2 per cent fall in new homes sales over April, leaving national sales in the last three months 8.8 per cent lower than the same period in 2021, when HomeBuilder drove sales to a record high.

HIA’s report had captured 25 per cent of the detached home-building sector.

There had been 17,513 new homes sold across Australia during the three months to April, 7.2 per cent less than the three months before.

However, the sales during the three months to April were 32.7 per cent higher than the same period, pre-COVID, in 2019.

Sales of new homes had also remained comparable to the record peaks observed during the HomeBuilder program, the report noted.

NSW had driven an uplift in sales beating the peaks resulting from HomeBuilder in 2021, with 11.1 per cent more newly built homes sold year-on-year in the three months to April, up to 3,951.

But the state was down by 15.5 per cent on the previous quarter.

During the month of April, NSW was also down by 9.4 per cent, down to 1,185.

Capacity constraints were likely to have limited the number of sales over the three months to April, the report noted, while the wet weather and floods will have delayed the sales pipeline in parts of the state.

Western Australia and Victoria were the only states with an increase in new homes during April, with Western Australia up by 8.8 per cent to 866 sales and Victoria increasing by 4 per cent to 2,420.

Victoria had seen a 4.2 per cent drop year-on-year, to 6,850 sales for the three months to April, but it was up from the three months by 1.7 per cent.

Western Australia’s sales on the other hand decreased by 15.9 per cent year-on-year, to 2,504 for the April quarter. It was down by 2.2 per cent from the previous quarter.

Meanwhile South Australia was down by 2 per cent over April, down to 366, while Queensland copped a 9 per cent fall to 1,028.

Looking at the three months to April, Queensland was down by 14.3 per cent year-on-year, to 3,167 sales, also declining quarter-on-quarter by 15.1 per cent.

South Australia meanwhile saw its new home sales plunge from the previous year, down 42.8 per cent to 1,041. Its sales had fallen by 10.5 per cent from the previous three-month period.

Recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed a drop in apartment projects dragged the number of homes approved to build by 18.5 per cent over March.

Meanwhile a report from PropTrack showed sales volumes were down by 15 per cent in April, compared to a year prior, with reduced mortgage affordability expected to keep weighing on buyer demand, especially after the recent cash rate rise.

[Related: Perth, Darwin values lift as capitals cool down]