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Worst over for WA residential building market, says HIA boss

Natalie HordovEastern Reporter

THE worst appears to be over for the WA residential building market, according to the Housing Industry Association (HIA).

Following the release of the Autumn 2017 edition of its Outlook Report for Western Australia, executive director John Gelavis said the WA housing market had experienced significant reductions due to the end of the mining investment boom and the cycle was now levelling out.

“The silver lining ahead is that the detached house side of the market showed an increase in activity at the end of 2016 for the first time in two years,” he said.

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“Other indicators of building activity are also showing signs of an imminent return to growth.”

Dwelling commencements in the December 2016 quarter were down by 8 per cent compared with the previous quarter due to a continued slowdown in multi-units commencements.

“We forecast that as the economy in WA stabilises after the slowdown in investment and conditions in WA gradually improve, that detached housing will lead the way to growth and then continue to grow moderately through to the end of this decade,” Mr Gelavis said.

“Multi-unit dwelling commencements will follow with a return to growth during the 2018-19 financial year.

“It is expected that new dwelling starts in WA will have fallen by 22 per cent by the end of this financial year but we anticipate a rebound in 2017-18 with a 3.7 per cent increase and further growth of 6.3 per cent forecast for 2018-19.”

The challenging conditions in the state economy had also hurt WA’s home renovations sector, but Mr Gelavis said this was also likely to experience recovery over the next few years as house price growth returned to the market.

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