New Housing Continues its Upward March
Today’s ABS release of housing data includes crucial information regarding dwelling commencements. The commencements update points to an ongoing new home building recovery, said the Housing Industry Association (HIA), the voice of Australia’s residential building industry.
"the twelve months to September there were 163,250 homes commenced," said HIA Chief Economist, Dr Harley Dale. "Looking past the spike in activity due to the GFC-related stimulus, that is the strongest level recorded since 2004."
"The overall recovery in new dwelling commencements since the trough in March 2012 is still being driven by New South Wales and Western Australia, although Queensland is showing clear signs of improvement," said Harley Dale.
In the September 2013 quarter detached house commencements lifted by 1.3 per cent while multi-unit commencements fell by 6.6 per cent. Accounting for the June quarter base, healthy gains in total commencements were evident in New South Wales (up 8.6 per cent) and Western Australia (up 4.0 per cent). The September quarter also saw growth for South Australia (up 2.4 per cent), the Northern Territory (up 1.9 per cent), and Queensland (up 0.2 per cent). Quarterly declines were recorded in Victoria (down by 8.5 per cent), Tasmania (down by 5.4 per cent), and the Australian Capital Territory (down by 32.7 per cent).
In terms of the value of work done, today’s release revealed an increase of 1.3 per cent in new residential work done in the September 2013 quarter.
Harley Dale, Chief Economist 0414 994 186
Geordan Murray, Economist 0438 103 651