From HIA. Having shown signs of easing in late 2015 and during the first three months of 2016, ABS data released today show that residential building approvals increased by 3 per cent in April, once again exceeding a monthly total of 20,000.
“Approvals for multi-unit dwellings provided the impetus for the headline growth in April, with approvals in this part of the market growing by 8.1 per cent during the month” said HIA Economist, Geordan Murray.
“The growth in multi-unit approvals was driven by the eastern sea-board states, where we saw multi-unit approvals jump by 20 per cent in Queensland, 19 per cent in New South Wales, and 7 per cent in Victoria. South Australia also posted an increase of 3 per cent.”
“Approvals for detached houses continue to flow through at a steady rate. While there was a decline of 2 per cent in the month, there were a total of 9,695 detached dwellings approved which is still on par with the monthly average over the last couple of years.”
“In contrast to the situation with multi-unit approvals, the number of detached house approvals fell across the eastern sea-board states while all other states and territories posted improvements. It’s pleasing to see the likes of South Australia post the strongest month of detached house approvals in more than two years.”
“Today’s strong result goes against the easing trend that we’ve observed over the last six months. We maintain our view that the level of new home building activity in to 2016 is likely to be lower than we saw during 2015, however this result suggests the 2016 level may be closer to the peak than initially expected.”
During April 2016, total seasonally adjusted new home building approvals saw the largest increase in South Australia (+13.7 per cent) with growth also occurring in Tasmania (+13.6 per cent), New South Wales (+10.4 per cent), and Queensland (+6.7 per cent). Approvals fell by 2.7 per cent in Victoria and
by 0.6 per cent in Western Australia. In trend terms, approvals saw a 15.1 per cent fall in the Northern Territory and an increase of 6.8 per cent in the Australian Capital Territory.
