New homes sold in the country in November dropped by 0.2 percent says a sales survey.

Overall, during the three months to November 2010, new home sales slowed down by 2 percent or around 11 percent lower compared to the same period in 2009.

The HIA-JELD-WEN New Home Sales Report says that detached house sales decreased by 1.1 percent although sales of multi-unit housing jumped by 8.1 percent during the same period.

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New home sales were affected by recent interest rate hikes recently announced by the Reserve Bank of Australia. In the same month, detached new house sales increased by 6.2 percent in New South Wales and by 1.5 percent in Western Australia.

In Victoria, housing sales declined by 0.2 percent while Queensland saw sales slowing by 10.4 percent and 0.8 percent in South Australia.

HIA chief economist Harley Dale said that the new home building market softened during the last six months which was aggravated by the interest rate hike. ‘‘New home building activity looks set to decline across all states and territories in 2011,’’ Dale told the AAP.‘‘The risk of a sharp contraction in new home building in 2011 is exacerbated by the negative impact on households and small businesses of increases in borrowing costs and by the persistent lack of available credit for small and medium-sized new home projects.’’

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