Sales turnover soars to new heights
House and unit sales are at their highest levels in four years, but RP Data predicts these volumes may begin to taper over the coming 12 months.
In the last financial year, house sales increased by 10.4 per cent while units sales climbed by 8.6 per cent, according to figures from RP Data.
In total, 348,670 houses and 135,330 units were sold in the period, the highest level since 2009/2010.
The greatest increases were in Tasmania and Queensland, where sales are up by 21.3 per cent and 14.8 per cent respectively.
Turnover also increased by 12.9 per cent in New South Wales, 7.5 per cent in Victoria, 9.3 per cent in South Australia and 0.3 per cent in ACT.
Only two states saw a decline – the Northern Territory, where activity eased by 0.2 per cent and Western Australia, where sales were down by 1.3 per cent.
However, RP Data senior research analyst Cameron Kusher said this strong performance was unlikely to last into the next financial year.
“Looking to the current financial year, interest rates are expected to remain on hold at least to the end of 2014 but potentially starting to rise during 2015,” Mr Kusher said.
“Sydney and Melbourne sales volumes appear to have already peaked however, they may rebound once more during spring.”
“Overall we would expect a reasonably high number of sales this financial year however, final numbers may be slightly lower than in 2013/2014.”