More houses are being built and renovated, and that makes Gerry Harvey optimistic about his business' fortunes.
Harvey Norman has turned around two years of declining profit, growing its bottom line by 49 per cent to $211.7 million in the year to June.
The retailer has come through the other side of a difficult period, including the GFC and the underperformance of its Clive Peeters and Rick Hart brands, the 74-year-old billionaire and executive chairman said.
A surge in housing construction in the first six months of 2014 was a good signal for Harvey Norman's "market leading" furniture and household appliance retail operations, Mr Harvey said.
"We've had a few slings and arrows of outrageous fortune come to visit us," he told AAP.
"Hopefully we're on the way to a recovery, the economy is in reasonable shape.
"There are no reasons to be pessimistic at this stage and believe interest rates are going to rise to three to four per cent, or unemployment is going to be 10 per cent."
Harvey Norman's improved performance sent its shares up 26 cents, or 7.9 per cent, to $3.55.
That added $81.5 million to the value of Mr Harvey's stake in the company, to $1.1 billion.
Profit growth was driven by changes to the company's property values, and a jump in sales.
Sales in stores owned by Harvey Norman grew more than 14 per cent to $1.51 billion.
Overall like-for-like sales growth was 4.7 per cent in the year, to $5.77 billion, due to more modest growth in franchise stores.
Mr Harvey said it was pleasing to see improved performances from each of the company's business segments, despite some short term weakness related to the Federal budget and general weakness in retail.
HARVEY NORMAN OVERCOMES THE RETAIL GLOOM
* Full year net profit of $211.7m, up 49 pct from $142.2m in 2012/13
* Sales revenue of $1.51b, up 14 pct from $1.32b
* Final divided of eight cents, up from 4.5 cents
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