New home sales regathered some lost ground in August 2013 due to an encouraging lift in detached house sales according to the Housing Industry Association's New Home Sales report.
"Detached house sales experienced a synchronised increase across the five surveyed states in the month of August 2013, a positive update for the new home construction outlook," said HIA Chief Economist, Dr Harley Dale. "Strong increases were evident in New South Wales and Western Australia – areas we expect will drive continued recovery in the coming months – as well as South Australia."
The report, a survey of Australia's largest volume builders, showed that total seasonally adjusted new home sales increased by 3.4 per cent in August 2013 following a decline of 4.7 per cent in July. The rise was driven by a 5.8 per cent increase in detached house sales. Conversely, multi-unit sales fell by 11.2 per cent in August.
"There is clear upward momentum in both new home sales and building approvals for detached houses in 2013, which is being countered to an extent by a significant downward trend for multi-units," commented Dr Dale.
In another encouraging sign for the Australian property market, housing approvals in August rose by 7.7 per cent over the same month in 2012, according to the latest building approval figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.