Surging new home sales in Victoria pushed up the national sales figures by more than 6 per cent in April, the Housing Industry Association (HIA) announced this week.
Releasing its latest New Home Sales report of Australia's major residential builders, the HIA said that new home building in Victoria had defied higher interest rates thanks to the
Victorian Government's first home buyer top-up grant for new dwellings.
HIA Chief Economist, Dr Harley Dale, said that without Victoria, detached house sales at the national level would have been lower in April.
Private sector detached house sales increased by 6 per cent in April. Multi-unit sales increased by 8 per cent following two soft months in February and March.
In the month of April 2010 detached new home sales increased by 27.6 per cent in Victoria and by 4.3 per cent in South Australia. Detached house sales fell by 9.6 per cent in New South Wales, 4.5 per cent in Queensland, and 8.2 per cent in Western Australia.
Over the three months to April 2010, new detached house sales rose in Victoria (up by 19 per cent) and South Australia (up 1 per cent), but were down in New South Wales (a drop of 6 per cent), Queensland (down by 4 per cent) and Western Australia (down 2 per cent).