[22/01/2021]

December New Home Sales Skyrocket

Despite a pandemic weakened economy, new home sales have boomed through December. 

The increase has been largely attributed to the HomeBuilder program, part of the government’s overall response to the economic fallout around COVID-19. HomeBuilder provides eligible owner-occupiers (including first home buyers) with a grant to build a new home or substantially renovate an existing home. 

For contracts signed before the 31^st of December this meant an additional $25,000 in the pockets of eligible buyers. Additionally, low-interest rates, improved lending assessments and price growth of established homes created a ‘perfect storm’ for new home buyers and boosted sales of new homes in 2020 by 32.5% over 2019 sales. 

HIA’s economist Angela Lillicrap outlined how high the demand was for new homes in December through the HIA New Home Sales Report, stating that December was “the second strongest month of new home sales in the 20-year history of the report, only exceeded by March 2001.” 

The HomeBuilder program has since been extended to March 2021 with a lesser grant of $15,000, promising strong – but reduced – demand for new homes into 2021.