‘Not the time for another rate rise’: Fresh warning as new home sales drop

At the start of this year, home-building appeared to be picking up. But the latest data on new home sales appears to confirm that momentum has stalled.The latest HIA New Home Sales report, a monthly survey of the largest-volume home builders across Australia’s five largest states, found sales fell nationally in August by 10%, as interest rate pressures and other factors continued to weigh on the market. New home sales dropped 10% nationally in August, according to the latest HIA report. Picture: GettyVictoria recorded the biggest fall, down 27%, followed by Queensland (-20.2%), NSW (-17.5%), South Australia -10.8%) and WA (-8.2%). Over the three months to August, sales were 19.3% lower than in the previous three-month period and 7.7% lower than the same period last year. HIA chief economist Tim Reardon said the market could not absorb further interest rate increases on top of tax increases announced in this year’s federal budget. “This is a tangible and significant deterioration in market conditions and confirms that the recovery in new home building that was underway at the start of the year, has been interrupted,” Mr Reardon said. He said falling established home prices, rising c...