Sales of new homes dropped over the last quarter, according to a monthly survey of Australia’s major home builders.
The latest HIA New Home Sales report shows that sales declined by 15.7% in the three months to September, compared to the previous quarter.
Victoria led the fall, with a drop of 20.8%, followed by Queensland (down 17.0%), New South Wales (16.3%) and Western Australia (10.0%). South Australia saw the only increase, up by 6.6%.
HIA Chief Economist Tim Reardon observed that the data reflects the weakest quarter since June 2020.
“New home sales fell in the month of September for the third consecutive month, by a further 4.2%”, Reardon said.
“This month’s data shows that home building is past the pandemic peak and is now set to experience a long slow-down.
“Given the longer-than-usual lags in this building cycle, the RBA’s rate hikes to date will similarly take longer than usual to affect the broader economy.
“Much of the impact of the RBA’s tightening cycle will be obscured until the second half of next year”, he concluded.
