Good news on the home building front

With last weeks coronavirus-inspired official rates cut, it is expected it will add further fuel to a new house market rekindling following a sluggish 2019.

But developers and contractors say, with attention already at record lows, broader forces are driving the tentative recovery that is more reflected in action than pricing.

Builder, Burbank’s national general manager for residential home Louis Sultan said the 25 basis point decrease (to 50 percentage points) would cement already powerful market confidence, particularly as the large banks have passed on the complete reduction.

Meanwhile, recorded home builder AV Jennings finds the early stages of a shallow retrieval in its key Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane markets.

In its half-year results last week, AV Jennings reported a list of 12,433 lots compared with 9864 previously.

According to RPM Real Estate’s Residential Market Review, land sales in Melbourne and Geelong hit a three-year low in mid-2019, but have shown two-quarters of consecutive growth.

However, while Melbourne’s home prices peaked at $859,000 at the end of 2019, the median lot cost fell 2.1 per cent to $308,900.