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The Australian Bureau of Statistics today released its monthly building approvals data for November for detached houses and multi-units covering all states and territories.
“Building approvals fell by 9.0 per cent in the month of November, including a 2.4 per cent decline in detached approvals and a 19.9 per cent decline in multi-units,” added Mr Devitt.
“This puts detached approvals over the three months to November down by 12.1 per cent on the same quarter in 2021, and multi-units down by 11.4 per cent.
“Within two months of the RBA’s first interest rate hike in May 2022, leading indicators of building activity including new home sales started to decline. Investors, first home buyers and owner- occupiers started retreating from the housing market.
“Today’s data suggests that builders have worked through much of the large pipeline of work that existed in May 2022, when the RBA started increasing the cash rate. This will result in a slowdown in the number of homes under construction in 2023.
“The full impact of the 2022 increases in the cash rate will not be observed until the second half of 2023.
“The depth of this downturn will be determined by the RBA’s cash rate decisions.
“The RBA has already undertaken the steepest hiking cycle in a generation and it needs to hold fire on further hikes to give their actions to date time to play out.
“As more housing market indicators reflect the impact of cash rate increases to date, the RBA will be under increasing pressure to reverse course in the second half of this year,” concluded Mr Devitt.
In seasonally adjusted terms, total building approvals by state were mostly down in the three months to November compared to the same quarter in 2021, with the declines led by Western Australia (-27.4 per cent), followed by Queensland (-16.8 per cent), New South Wales (-12.0 per cent), and Victoria (- 6.6 per cent), with South Australia seeing the only increase (+6.2 per cent). In original terms, total building approvals increased in the Northern Territory (+29.0 per cent) and Tasmania (+7.8 per cent), while declining in the Australian Capital Territory (-34.8 per cent).
“The RBA decision to keep interest rates in restrictive territory today will not stop the improvement in leading indicators of future home building,” stated HIA Senior Economist Tom Devitt.
In mid-June 2025, the NSW Premier released the Housing and Productivity Contribution (HPC) Works-in-Kind Guideline for public consultation.
Today the State Government announced proposed changes to the regulatory powers to investigate registered builders who may be unable to meet the financial requirements of registration. The announcement also included a long-awaited review of the Home Building Contracts Act 1991 (HBCA) and associated laws.
Housing Industry Association welcomes today’s announcement by the Cook Labor Government to review key aspects of the home building contracts legislation and provide the building regulator with additional powers to work with builders in distress.