New apartment sales dropped 15.1 per cent nationally in November 2015 with slowing population growth, bank regulator controls and an uptick in variable mortgage costs behind the decline, a new report shows.

New home sales dropped 2.7 per cent in November, driven largely by double digit drops in ‘multi-unit’ sales, the Housing Industry Association’s new home sales report, released on Thursday, found.

This is the third consecutive decline in recorded new home sales, the association has recorded in its report, which surveys Australia’s largest home builders.

New detached house sales increased by 1.1 per cent in November.

HIA chief economist Harley Dale said it was a “confluence of factors” that drove the decline, including an “easing in property price growth in Sydney and Melbourne” and lending changes.

The drop in new home sales was not sharp in the second-half of 2015, Mr Dale said.

“There is, however, a steeper descent apparent for the ‘multi-unit’ market compared to detached houses,” he said.

Over the three months to November 2015, new detached house sales fell by 4.1 per cent and multi-unit sales dropped 11.8 per cent.

Commonwealth Bank senior economist Michael Workman said the drop was out of sync with construction levels, with 2016 expected to be a record year for new house and unit building.

“There were some changes to interest rates in November that may be an influence,” Mr Workman said.

“[In November] the federal government also indicated they would be introducing higher controls over foreign buying,” he said.

Price growth is expected to be sluggish over 2016, particularly in Sydney, he said.

“It looks like it’ll be very difficult to get high apartment prices by the end of the year,” Mr Workman said.

AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver said there is a lot of volatility in apartment markets, so warned against reading “too much” into monthly figures, but agreed there seemed to be some slowing.

“It could be a sign of the new supply coming on in Melbourne and Sydney at a time when buyers are more cautious,” Mr Oliver said.

“It’s consistent with a slowing down in the property market,” he said.

Over November, the HIA recorded detached new house sales were up 8 per cent in Queensland, 3.3 per cent in Victoria and 0.7 per cent in NSW, but fell 1 per cent in South Australia and 9 per cent in Western Australia.

Brisbane is the “next [capital city] to take off and these figures are consistent with that”, Mr Oliver said.