New home sales remain firm in August

THE most recent Housing Industry Association (HIA) New Home Sales Report for August shows the strength in new home sales indicate that the boom in detached home building will continue to create strong employment opportunities into the second half of 2022.

HIA economist Tom Devitt said new home sales remained strong in August, albeit not at the record levels observed prior to the end of HomeBuilder in March 2021.

“Sales in the three months to August 2021 were 15.5 per cent lower than the same time in 2020,” Mr Devitt said.

“A more reasonable timeframe for comparison is the same period in 2018 and 2019, before the adverse impact of COVID-19 and the stimulus from HomeBuilder.

The New Home Sales Report also shows that in the past three months sales were 15.4 per cent higher than at the same time in 2019 and 4.5 per cent higher than the same time in 2018.

“This strength in sales of new detached homes is likely due to increased household savings during the pandemic,” Mr Devitt explained.

“There has also been a switch in market preference toward lower density homes as working from home becomes entrenched,”

In the three months to August, Western Australia led the pack, up by 60 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2019, followed by New South Wales (+28.1 per cent), Victoria (+6.7 per cent), Queensland (-1.5 per cent) and South Australia (-15.2 per cent).