New figures show that residential building has lifted by almost one tenth in the twelve months to June 2013, after years of decline.
Data released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that the trend estimate for the total number of dwelling units commenced fell 0.2 per cent in the June 2013 quarter following a rise of 0.9 per cent in the March quarter.
In seasonally adjusted terms, the total number of dwelling units commenced was essentially unchanged, but between the June quarters 2012 and 2013 this figure has increased by 9.8 per cent.
New private sector house commencements rose 5.7 per cent to 23,407 dwellings while ‘other residential building’ fell 3.7 per cent to 15,737 dwellings. These figures represent an annual rise of 8.9 and 9.3 per cent respectively.
There were healthy gains in dwelling commencements in Queensland (up by 8.0 per cent), South Australia (up by 6.0 per cent), Western Australia (up by 11.3 per cent), Tasmania (up by 15.6 per cent), and the ACT (up by 107.6 per cent).
Quarterly declines were recorded in NSW (down by 8.0 per cent), Victoria (down by 2.2 per cent), and the NT (down by 15.1 per cent).
The total value of new residential building work done rose 0.3 per cent in the June quarter, in trend terms. This was due to a drop of 1.4 per cent in the value of work done on new houses while new other residential building rose 3.2 per cent.
The value of ‘larger alterations and additions’ increased by 4.0 per cent in the June 2013 quarter.