Australia New Home Sales at 17 Year Low

New home sales plummet to 17-year low

The number of contracts signed for new homes fell in March to 5443, down 9.4 per cent from the previous month, a figure only slightly ahead of a similar period in 1995, when then-governor of the Reserve Bank Bernie Fraser raised interest rates across the country.

In New South Wales, sales tumbled 9.7 per cent in March. In Victoria, they were down 4.6 per cent, in Western Australia 12 per cent, and in Queensland they fell 15.3 per cent, the HIA-Jeld-Wen survey shows.

Australian Property Monitors last week said values rose 0.9 per cent in the first three months of this year, but rival RP Data recorded a flat overall trend while another data source, Residex, had prices falling 0.7 per cent.