SA new home sales up 10.6% in January

New home sales in South Australia have shown signs of improvement through the month of January with a strong increase.

The Housing Industry Association (HIA) New Home Sales report found total seasonally adjusted detached residential real estate sales in the state jumped by 10.6 per cent in the first month of the year, with a recent run of increases only interrupted by a slight decline in December.

HIA regional executive director of South Australia and the Northern Territory Robert Harding lauded the fact that the rises in 2012 have permeated through to 2013.

He said: "Levels of detached house sales are indeed comparable to those of late 2011, however, we would hardly consider that period to be the benchmark of success.

"In fact, at that time we had already raised our concerns that sales levels had been persistently low."

Mr Harding did warn that current sales levels are well below where a healthy market should be, with January sales over 30 per cent lower than the five-year average of sales prior to the decline of 2010.

The regional executive director explained that there is still a long way to go before talk of healthy levels can seriously be considered.