New home sales edged slightly higher in June as first home buyers stayed active in the market while new detached home sales rose 8 per cent in Western Australia, a survey says.
A Housing Industry Association (HIA) report found new home sales rose 0.5 per cent in June.
Sales of detached or stand alone houses climbed 0.3 per cent in June, while sales of multi-unit dwellings were up 2.9 per cent in the month.
In the six months to June, total new home sales have advanced 13 per cent.
HIA chief economist Harley Dale said the lift in activity over the first half of 2009 "clearly marked a healthy turnaround" in the market after a period of weakness at the end of 2008.
"The lift in new home sales over the first half of the year was driven by low mortgage rates and the first home buyer stimulus," Dr Dale said in a statement.
"To date, the pick-up in new home sales has been dominated by the first home buyer, a reminder that a sustained recovery in new home building needs to be more evenly spread across trade-up buyers and investors."
The federal government increased in October last year the first home owner grant to those buying a new home or building their own home to $21,000.
The grant is due to be reduced to $14,000 after 30 September.
Detached house sales rose 18 per cent in the first half of calendar 2009, while multi-unit sales were down 20 per cent over the same period, the HIA report said.
"A more positive picture for the detached dwelling sector was dimmed by weakness in the apartment sector," Dr Dale said.
"The multi-unit sector continues to be plagued by investor uncertainty and restrictions on the availability of credit for development."
Among the states, new detached home sales rose 24.2 per cent in South Australia in June, were up 8.0 per cent in Western Australia and increased 1.2 per cent in Victoria.
Sales fell 9.9 per cent in Queensland and slipped 4.2 per cent in New South Wales, the state's second straight monthly fall.
"The recovery has run out of steam in recent months and new home building levels in NSW remain perilously low," the HIA report said.
"Clearly more needs to be done."
