SYDNEY: New Australian home sales have recorded their first monthly fall for 2015, with a drop in sales of detached houses.
New home sales slipped 2.3 percent in May, the Housing Industry Association’s (HIA) new home sales report showed on Tuesday.
The month’s negative result comes after a run of four monthly rises.
“This is a softer result at face value, but delving beneath the surface reveals an aggregate profile of healthy new home building conditions in 2015,” HIA chief economist Harley Dale said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The decline was driven by a … dip in detached house sales, reflecting weaker monthly demand in four out of the five states surveyed.”
