Good news for residential builders and anyone looking at building a house at the moment. Once again, Western Australia has been rated the number one state in the HIA’s Housing Scorecard report for its residential building sector. This bi-annual publication ranks states on their performance under 14 different criterion including; detached house building, multi-dwelling building, renovations, construction labour force, housing finance and turnover of established homes. WA came out on top in the numbers of housing loans to first-home buyers, new detached housing under construction and established home and multi-unit sales.
"WA has once again topped the rankings, remaining the strongest residential building market in the country, ahead of New South Wales," explained Harley Dale, chief economist for the HIA. He went on to say that despite a recent dip in the market, WA has retained its number one spot, with a score of 82 points, followed by NSW (77 points), the ACT (69 points), Victoria (68 points), the Northern Territory (68 points), South Australia (54 points), Queensland (50 points) and Tasmania (36 points). New South Wales achieved an astounding growth, jumping from fifth spot to second over a short period.
According to the RP Data-Rismark Monthly Home Value Index, Perth’s dwelling prices rose in June by 1.2 per cent month-on-month and 5.24 per cent from June last year ( data as of 30th June 2014, source http://www.rpdata.com/research/monthly_indices.html).