Boost In building approvals in January

“THE NUMBER of approvals for new home building started 2019 on a positive note with an increase of 2.5 percent during January in seasonally-adjusted terms,” according to Master Builders Australia’s chief economist Shane Garrett. 

“The rise in approvals during January follows a run of weak results during the back end of last year. Higher density housing in particular has lost a lot of ground over the past 12 months,” he said. 

“During January, the number of approvals for new detached houses rose by 1.9 percent with a stronger increase of 3.8 percent on the apartment/units side of the market,” Mr Garret said. 

“Despite the welcome increase in approvals during January, we are still down by almost 30 percent compared with this time last year,” he said. 

“The ongoing difficulties in the flow of credit and concerns about the direction of housing policy post-election are having negative effects on home building activity,” Mr Garrett said. 

“Construction is the economy’s largest provider of full-time jobs and the upcoming round of federal, state and territory budgets provides a real opportunity to get us back onto the right track." 

During January, WA saw the largest increase in total new home approvals (+28.8%), followed by Tasmania (+15.4%) and NSW (+12.0%). 

The largest reductions affected the ACT (-19.8%) and the NT (-8.0%). Approvals also declined in Victoria (-7.9%), Queensland (-3.5%) and SA (-1.5%) during the month.

www.masterbuilders.com.au

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