Sales of new and newly constructed homes throughout Australia remain strong despite the end of the Commonwealth HomeBuilder program, the latest data shows.

Releasing its latest report, Housing Industry Association says the seasonally adjusted number of new homes which were sold throughout the country increased by 15.3 percent during the month of June.

At this level, new homes sales were up by 11.2 percent compared to the same quarter in 2019 (the year before COVID and thus the most recent year of meaningful comparison) and were on par with the June quarter of 2018 which was part of a strong year for detached home building.

Leading the way were New South Wales and Western Australia, where sales were over a third higher in the June 2021 quarter compared to the same time in 2019.

Sales in Queensland were 4.4 per cent higher compared to the June 2019 quarter, while Victoria is flat (down by 0.1 per cent).

Whilst sales in South Australia were 14.4 percent lower compared to the June quarter in 2019, HIA points out that SA had the strongest response to the HomeBuilder program.

HIA Economist Angela Lillicrap says the report – a monthly survey of the largest volume home builders in the five largest states – is a leading indicator of the near-term future of detached home construction.

Lillicrap says the data signals that demand for new home building remains strong even after the passing of the deadline for Homebuilder and that there will be a significant number of new homes entering the pipeline post HomeBuilder which will ensure activity remains elevated into 2022.

She says demand from owner occupiers is being driven by record low interest rates and confidence in the housing market.

Strong house price growth is also a contributing factor as this enables households to enter into a contract to build with the expectation that house prices will continue to grow and the property will be worth more when it is completed, Lillicrap added.