New Home Sales Continue to Slide

Since 2015, Australia's Housing Industry Association has tracked a decline in new home sales since its peak, and recently reported a further reduction of 6.1 per cent during September 2017.

According to the HIA's monthly new home sales report, which gauged sales activity in residential building across the five largest states, new detached house sales fell by 4.5 per cent with a reduction of 16.7 per cent on the multi-unit side of the market.

HIA senior economist Shane Garrett said the decline in home sales over the past 18 months reflected the slowing in output across the economy.

Garrett said it was a guide to short term activity in the residential building industry.

[Related reading: Victoria the Exception as National Dwelling Sales Decline]

New South Wales was the only state to buck the trend this month with house sales lifting 3.7 per cent.

Western Australia experienced the largest reduction in sales during September (-15.1 per cent) followed by Queensland (-8.7 per cent).

New detached house sales also fell in Victoria (-2.3 per cent) and SA (-1.7 per cent) during September.

"We expect that activity will bottom out sometime in 2019 with a recovery then setting in -- assuming the economy reverts to its long-term average growth rate of around 3 per cent,” Garrett said.

[Related reading: What To Expect From The Housing Market In 2018: SQM]