The latest HIA/ACI Population and Residential Building Hotspots Report shows Western Australia again dominating the latest league table, with Victoria and New South Wales also strongly represented. Nationally, a “Hotspot” is defined as a local area where population growth exceeds the national rate and where the value of residential building work approved is in excess of $100 million. Local areas featuring on the Building Momentum shortlist have demonstrated consistently strong rates of population growth in recent years in addition to an increase in the estimated value of new home building work approved in 2014/15.
Six of the top twenty Hotspots were in Western Australia, followed by Victoria with five and New South Wales with four. For a second consecutive year, it was the Australian Capital Territory that was home to Australia’s number one building and population Hotspot – the territory’s South West area. Second place was the Northern Territory’s Palmerston South area. The ACT was also home to Australia’s number three Hotspot, the suburb of Crace.
This year’s Hotspots report also provides a Building Momentum shortlist which identifies a number of regions where further upward momentum in building activity is set to occur in 2015. Strong potential is evident for local areas in NSW in particular, while WA and Victoria also feature quite broadly. In contrast, the ACT does not feature on this shortlist, signalling that the experience of recent years – where a number of ACT areas have been strongly represented among the Nation’s Top 20 Hotspots – is unlikely to be replicated next year.
