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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.
The HIA has been advised that due to an increase of plumbing audit inspection failures, from the 1st of September, the Office of the Technical Regulator (OTR) will be further policing non-compliance in the installation of sanitary plumbing and drainage pipework, namely the bedding of sanitary drainage pipes.
The Housing Industry Association (HIA) has welcomed the establishment of the Senate Economics References Committee Inquiry into social housing, describing it as an important opportunity to identify the reforms needed to deliver more housing of all forms at scale and address the bottlenecks holding back housing supply broadly.
“Sales of new homes declined for a third consecutive month in July, falling by 3.7 per cent as higher interest rates and policy uncertainty continued to weigh on consumer confidence,” stated HIA Senior Economist, Tom Devitt.
HIA is proudly supporting National Skills Week this year by highlighting the construction industry’s many and diverse career opportunities.