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The HIA New Home Sales report is a monthly survey of the largest volume home builders in the five largest states and is a leading indicator of future detached home construction.
“Victoria was the only one of the five largest states to have seen a fall in new home sales in the month, which left the three months to January 2025 down by 6.6 per cent compared to the previous quarterly period,” added Mr Ryan.
“When compared to the previous year, new home sales in Victoria have remained virtually unchanged, falling by 0.5 per cent.
“This makes Victoria the only one of the five largest states to have not seen an improvement in sales from this cycle’s trough. Australia’s largest home building market should be doing much better than this with a growing population and high employment rates.
“This flat result in new home sales is also evident in other leading indicators of home building activity, with house approvals in the 2024 calendar year up by just 1.5 per cent compared to 2023.
“The flat sales and approvals results came just before the Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates in February. This is expected to help boost activity in the new housing market.
“HIA forecasts detached home building starts in Victoria to increase modestly in 2024/25, up by 3.2 per cent from very weak levels in the previous year.
“Interest rate cuts should help increase demand for new homes. However, far more important will be the policy decisions that either increase or decrease the costs of land and construction in Victoria. It is becoming clearer that Victoria’s excessive tax burden is a major cause of the poor performance of the home building industry. If Victoria continues to lag behind other states in coming months, it will be harder to blame interest rates for reduced consumer demand.
“If the Victorian government wants to achieve its housing targets and address the housing crisis, policy reforms are needed to reduce the costs of land and construction,” concluded Mr Ryan.
“The NSW planning system has failed to deliver the number of homes we desperately need and we fully support removing the politics from housing, to address this growing crisis,” said Brad Armitage, HIA Executive Director NSW.
The Victorian Opposition’s announcement that it would remove stamp duty for first-home buyers spending up to $1 million on a new or existing home if elected at next year’s state election, is a positive step towards improving home affordability,” says Steven Wojtkiw, HIA Victoria Deputy Executive Director.
“New home sales rose by 16.5 per cent in the month of April 2025, to its highest level in 12 months,” stated HIA Economist, Maurice Tapang.
The number of homes commencing construction in Australia is set to increase over the next few years, driven by strong population growth, low unemployment, and falling interest rates. However, long-term structural issues continue to pose risks to housing affordability and national supply targets, according to the latest outlook from the Housing Industry Association.