After a slight lift in sales during November, HIA New Home Sales reverted back to the declining trend that had been evident throughout 2018. Private new detached house sales declined by 6.7 per cent in the month which took the volume of sales to the lowest monthly level recorded since late 2012.

It was a weak result across the board in December – New South Wales was the only state where sales did not decline during the month (up by 10.0 per cent). Elsewhere, sales declined: in Victoria, by 11.8 per cent; Queensland was down by 9.2 per cent; South Australia was down by 4.0 per cent, and; Western Australia was down by 9.2 per cent.