While they remain at low levels by historical standards, residential land sales appear to be on a steady upward trajectory.

The latest HIA-RP Data Residential Land Report provided by the Housing Industry Association and RP Data found the volume of land sales increased by 1.3 per cent in the September 2011 quarter. However, volumes were still 16.8 per cent lower than in the September 2010 quarter.

"It's a long climb back, but at least we have now seen three consecutive quarters in which land sales volumes have increased, although there is no avoiding the fact that overall levels remain low," said HIA senior economist, Andrew Harvey.

"Land sales are an early leading indicator so an upturn in trajectory is essential to the prospect for an eventual recovery in new home building activity - although we really do need much higher sales levels to make a material difference," Harvey said.

"Having land sales still at less than half the September 2009 peak speaks for itself in terms of how far the market has come off and adds to the already strong case for stimulatory policy, both in terms of further rate cuts and fiscal measures to stimulate new home building," added Harvey.

The weighted median land value in Australia grew by 0.5 per cent in the September 2011 quarter to be 1.7 per cent higher than the comparable quarter in 2010.

The median value for capital cities rose by 1.0 per cent in the September 2011 quarter to $213,718 which is 2.5 per cent higher than one year earlier.

The median value for Regional Australia fell by 0.7 per cent in the September 2011 quarter to $154,989, to be up by 0.2 per cent on the September 2010 quarter.

RP Data's senior research analyst Cameron Kusher agreed that the result is encouraging but cautions that the market still has a long way to go.

"Following the low point in sales activity in the December 2010 quarter there has been a noticeable improvement in the number of vacant land transactions.

“It is also important to remember that the improvement commenced at a time when many expected that official interest rates would climb higher. With successive 25 basis point cuts to interest rates in November and again in December 2011, we would expect that a steady improvement in sales activity which commenced in the December 2010 quarter is likely to continue and perhaps gather further pace. However, we believe the market still has a long way to go to return to healthy levels."

Architecture & Design Team

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