VICTORIA STAYS ATOP HOUSING SCORECARD

First home buyers have kept Victoria at the top of the rankings, according to the HIA’s Housing Scorecard.

The HIA Housing Scorecard report presents analysis which ranks each of the eight states and territories based on the performance of 12 key residential building indicators.

“Analysis in this edition of the HIA Housing Scorecard shows that Victoria is still supporting a strong level of building activity on the ground, despite a slowdown in the volume of new work entering the pipeline,” HIA’s chief economist Tim Reardon said.

“First home buyers have been taking advantage of the improved affordability of homes.

“The upside of the recent building industry cycle is that as activity levels have synchronised across the east and
west coasts – and within each state – it has become easier for policy makers to coordinate policy settings.

“National policy settings – including repeal of regulatory restrictions, lower interest rates and now income tax cuts – have shifted to encourage growth.

The market now faces more consistent and appropriate regulatory settings across the economy which should, in turn, put a floor under the market downturn.”

He said that for much of the past decade there had been highly divergent market conditions between capital cities and even within each state.

“This has challenged policy makers

who were attempting to cool the boom in Sydney and Melbourne markets and in doing so, inadvertently
exacerbated the downturn in markets in Western Australia and Northern Queensland.

“There is a convergence of conditions underway in the building industry as the markets in Sydney and Melbourne cool, meaning they have joined the resource intensive jurisdictions with more modest levels of building activity.”.