New home sales received a welcome boost in November after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cut the interest rate, a survey shows.

The Housing Industry Association (HIA) on Monday said new homes sales rose a seasonally-adjusted 6.8 per cent in November, following a downwardly revised 2.8 per cent gain in October.

HIA chief economist Harley Dale said the result was healthy but not unexpected.

“Only two months, earlier in September 2011, detached house sales plumbed an 11-year low,” Dr Dale said.

“From this parlous starting position, and with speculation regarding a rate cut mounting and then delivered upon, anything other than some recovery in sales volumes would have been surprising, not to mention highly disturbing.”

The RBA reduced the cash rate by 25 basis points in November after keeping rates on hold for a full year.

However, Dr Dale said there was still a long way to go to restore new home sales volumes to “acceptable levels”.

“At present, sales volumes are running at least 20 per cent below what you could conservatively call healthy.”

Detached house sales increased by 9.8 per cent in the month, driven primarily by a stronger showing in NSW and Victoria, HIA said.

Multi-unit sales dropped by 17.0 per cent.

The volume of detached house sales improved in four out of five mainland states in November 2011, rising by 22.8 per cent in NSW and 11.6 per cent in Victoria.

Sales fell by 11.3 per cent in South Australia.