Sales of new detached homes finished 2021 in strength, a survey of Australia’s largest home builders has revealed.
The latest HIA New Home Sales report shows that new home sales in the three months to January 2022 increased by 21.4% on the previous period.
The strongest result was in Queensland, where sales increased in the three months to January 2022 to be 46.3% higher than the previous quarter. This was followed by New South Wales (up 33.7%), Victoria (28.5%), and South Australia (3.4%). Western Australia saw the only quarterly decline, down by 18.0%.
HIA Economist Tom Devitt remarked that outside the period associated with the HomeBuilder grant, which ended almost a year ago, this is the second strongest quarter of the last decade.
“The volume of sales in recent months is rarely seen outside of periods of Government stimulus”, Devitt said.
“Sales fell in January 2022 by 8.3% compared to the previous month. Yet this still represents one of the strongest months of the last decade.
“This ongoing demand suggests the current new home building boom will continue, supporting strong levels of employment into 2023.”
Devitt concluded the report by suggesting that the biggest constraint on builders this year is likely to be the price and availability of land, labour and materials.
