CANBERRA, AAP – The housing industry expects strong demand for new detached housing will continue across 2022 after posting bumper sales in the three months to January.
The strength in home sales followed the end of the COVID-19 Delta lockdowns and the return of some certainty and confidence to the market.
The Housing Industry Association said new home sales, covering the nation’s five largest states, rose by 21.4 per cent in the three months to January compared to the previous quarter.
“The volume of sales in recent months is rarely seen outside of periods of government stimulus,” HIA economist Tom Devitt said.
“Excluding the period associated with the HomeBuilder grant, which ended almost a year ago, this is the second strongest quarter of the last decade.”
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Such strength came despite an 8.3 per cent fall in sales for January compared to December, but again was still one of the strongest months of the past 10 years.
Mr Devitt said this ongoing demand suggests the current new home building boom will continue, supporting strong levels of employment into 2023.
However, even when the functioning of supply chains improves, he expects builders will still be constrained this year by the price and availability of land, labour and materials.
For the January quarter, sales in Queensland increased by 46.3 per cent, in NSW they were up 33.7 per cent, Victoria rose by 28.5 per cent and for South Australia they were 3.4 per cent higher.
Western Australia saw the only quarterly decline, down by 18 per cent.
“This reflects the significant volume of work already in the pipeline and ongoing constraints on land, labour and materials, rather than a weakness in demand,” Mr Devitt said.
