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New homes going up

New home commencements lifted by 2 per cent lift in the September 2012 quarter, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

In seasonally adjusted terms the number of detached dwelling commencements increased by 4.3 per cent in the first quarter of the 2012/13 financial year. This is still slightly (1.4 per cent) below the level of a year ago.

There was a decline of 1.3 per cent in the number of multi-unit dwellings commenced in the September quarter, but the level remains 5.1 per cent higher than the level recorded in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

The news of a second consecutive quarterly improvement was welcomed by the Housing Industry Association (HIA).

HIA Economist, Geordan Murray said that with 37,027 commencements, this is the strongest quarterly result in over a year.

“New South Wales posted an encouraging result with a 9.5 per cent increase in commencements in the quarter, although it is likely to be influenced by changes to government incentives that occurred around this time”, Geordan Murray said.

“The headline result was underpinned by a substantial 18.8 per cent lift in detached dwelling commencements as well as a 1.8 per cent lift in multi-unit commencements”, he added.

Taking a look around the other states, dwelling commencements increased in Victoria by 2.9 per cent and in Western Australia by 23.6 per cent.

The number of starts fell by 14.2 per cent in Queensland, 9.4 per cent in South Australia, 0.4 per cent in Tasmania, 29.9 per cent in the NT and 3.3 per cent in the ACT.