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Building approvals in February reached a six-month peak, says the Housing Industry Association, citing newly released ABS data.
Seasonally adjusted total new dwelling approvals for the month increased by 8.3 per cent, after a 5.7 per cent rise in detached house approvals and an 11.0 per cent jump in multi-unit approvals.
Senior economist Shane Garrett said new dwelling approvals months over the past 12 months totalled 229,091 Australia-wide.
“This will ensure that a substantial pipeline of work will keep the housing industry busy for much of 2017,” Mr Garrett said.
However, he added that despite the “sharp bounce” in new dwelling approvals, the overall building approvals profile is consistent with the HIA expectation that new home construction will dip in the next few years.
“The HIA New Home Sales series provides similar support for this outlook,” Mr Garrett said.
“The multi-unit side of the market will see the greater share of the reduction in new home building activity. Already, approvals are down by over 20 per cent in quarterly terms since August of last year.”
In February, total seasonally adjusted new home building approvals only increased in two states – Queensland (+33.7 per cent) and New South Wales (+19.6 per cent).
The largest reduction occurred in Tasmania (-14.7 per cent), followed by Victoria (-8.8 per cent). Approvals also fell in South Australia (-2.5 per cent) and Western Australia (-5.5 per cent).
In trend terms, approvals contracted by 13.0 per cent in the Northern Territory, while a decline of 15.7 per cent occurred in the Australian Capital Territory.
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