New building approvals in Australia were down 7 percent in January, to 14,045 from 15,106 units in December, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said Today.
Over the longer term, building approvals were up 47.6 percent in the year to January.
This news comes as the RBA prepares to make another decision on whether to raise interest rates this afternoon. With 15 out of 19 economists surveyed by Bloomberg expecting the RBA to lift the official cash rate by 25 basis points by the end of the day.
Sales of new homes rose 9.5 percent in January, the highest for five months, primarily as a result of the bullish Victorian market.
In Victoria, new home sales were 17.1 percent higher, in NSW, 3.1 percent, 6.3 percent in Queensland and 6.6 percent in South Australia.
Melbourne last weekend hit the $1 billion mark for property sales in the last year for the first time ever. This growth is leading to increasing anxiety amongst buyers as they fear missing out on being able to afford a home, sowing the seeds of another property boom and bust cycle.
“I have never come across such high anxiety in buyers. It’s playing on buyers’ minds because they are only seeing the property boom and they despair that they’ll never be able to afford a home,” said Catherine Cashmore of JPP Buyers Advocates.
