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The Australian Bureau of Statistics today released its monthly building approvals data for March for detached houses and multi-units covering all states and territories.
“Detached house approvals declined by 2.9 per cent in the month of March to be 15.0 per cent lower than in the same month last year,” added Mr Devitt.
“This continues the long-lagged response of Australian homebuyers to the RBA’s interest rate hiking cycle, with further declines expected in the coming months.
“The adverse impact of last year’s cash rate increases is still to fully flow through to the official data. Further cash rate increases this year will have only added further weight to these declines.
“Multi-unit approvals in 2023 have recorded their lowest levels since 2012. The combination of construction cost blowouts, labour uncertainties, increased compliance costs and taxes on investors has seen approvals for multi-units stall.
“These disappointing approvals numbers are occurring as population growth surges with the return of overseas migrants, students and tourists.
“This imbalance will see the affordability and rental crisis deteriorate further,” concluded Mr Devitt.
Total building approvals were down across almost all the jurisdictions in the March Quarter 2023 compared to the same quarter last year. In seasonally adjusted terms, decreases were led by New South Wales (-34.1 per cent) and Victoria (-26.6 per cent), followed by Western Australia (-14.9 per cent), Tasmania (-10.8 per cent) and South Australia (-5.7 per cent), while Queensland increased by 8.6 per cent. In original terms the Australian Capital Territory saw a decline of 35.3 per cent and Northern Territory was down by 19.1 per cent.
To have any hope of delivering the quantity of new homes desperately needed in Queensland to address not only the current housing shortage but demand into the future, we need all sectors of the home building industry to be firing.
HIA provided feedback to the Department of Housing and Public Works on this reform which if implemented correctly will streamline the delivery of new houses, remove unnecessary approval costs and improve housing affordability.
“The Housing Industry Association (HIA) welcomes the federal government’s announcement of a new $900 million National Productivity Fund, aimed at driving productivity-enhancing reforms across the states and territories,” said HIA Managing Director, Jocelyn Martin.
HIA refers to the Draft Work Health & Safety Amendment (Silica Worker Register) Regulation 2024 recently released by SafeWork NSW and associated Silica Worker Consultation Paper.