Sales of new homes bounded out of the gates for 2025, according to a monthly survey of Australia’s home builders.
The latest HIA New Home Sales report shows that sales increased by 4.1 per cent in the month of January 2025, offsetting weaker sales in November and December 2024.
HIA Economist Maurice Tapang noted that the rise occurred prior to the cash rate cut in February, which should further boost market confidence.
“Sales have been increasing off a very low base, consistent with stable economic conditions. Unemployment remains at very low levels, while there remains an acute shortage of housing stock”, Tapang suggested.
“Poor sales volumes in New South Wales and Victoria have obscured an improvement in Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia.
“This likely reflects the relative affordability of these markets, with the cost of a new detached house in Sydney and Melbourne prohibitively expensive for a larger number of households.
“The volume of detached house approvals in Australia has also picked up, with the 2024 calendar year seeing 6.8 per cent more houses approved for construction compared to 2023.
“The rise in new home sales and new detached house approvals in is consistent with expectations of an increase in the volume of homes commencing construction this year”, Tapang concluded.
New home sales in the three months to January 2025 increased by 70.5 per cent in New South Wales compared to the same time in the previous year, off a very low base.
This was followed by South Australia (up 22.3 per cent) and Queensland (12.3 per cent). New home sales were virtually unchanged in Victoria (down by just 0.5 per cent) over the same period, while Western Australia recorded a 26.1 per cent decline but only due to capacity constraints, particularly with labour.