WA new home sales up 91%

Western Australia is leading the country in new home sales, up 91.1 per cent in the six months to August, according to the Housing Industry Association.

The HIA’s latest New Home Sales report found WA’s new home sales figures had increased more than anywhere else in Australia over the past three months, as well as over the past six months.

The report is a monthly survey of the largest volume of home builders in the five largest states.

“The latest data out today shows a 175 per cent increase in WA’s new home sales over the three months since HomeBuilder and the Building Bonus were announced in early June,” HIA WA executive director Cath Hart said.

“WA saw an initial spike of 211 per cent in new home sales in June which moderated in July to 17 per cent, before increasing by 11.4 per cent in August.”

New home sales in WA over the past six months to August were up by 91.1 per cent - the highest of all states - compared to the same period the year before.

While the surge in new homes was welcomed by industry, Ms Hart said she was concerned consumers could miss out on their grants.

“We’re going from an historic low to an historic high, and the grants require builders to commence work on-site quickly despite challenges in terms of titled land and labour,” Ms Hart said.

“This spike of more than 175 per cent compared to the previous quarter has created challenges in securing titled land and labour given both building schemes were launched when WA was at a 20-year low in sales activity.”

HIA’s report follows the state government’s announcement yesterday of an additional $30 million to be put toward the Building Bonus program – but no mention of a delivery timeframe extension for the grants, despite consistent calls by the property industry

“We’d like land developers to be given until 30 June 2021 to title lots, and once that’s done we’d like builders to be given six months to commence after lots are titled,” Ms Hart said.

“We’re not asking for the program itself to be extended beyond the original 31 December 2020 end date - just the timeframes to start building after that.”

Under the Building Bonus, on-site work is required to commence within six months. Under the federal HomeBuilder program, on-site work is required to commence within three months, with the option of a three month extension for factors outside the consumers’ control.

“Smoothing out the workflow like this will be important for the safety and sustainability of our workforce and would support the next phase of WA’s post-COVID economic recovery by spreading the positive impact of these programs beyond next year,” Ms Hart said.

“This is important longer-term because despite today’s result, we also need to be thinking about how to transition the state’s home building industry back toward WA’s long-term average of 22,000 starts by ensuring a stable and sustainable pipeline of activity, plus the right mix of skills to deliver.”