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DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

	Dec 04	Nov 04 to Dec 04	Dec 03 to Dec 04
	no.	% change	% change
Trend
Total dwelling units approved	12,415	-1.1	-16.4
Private sector houses	8,435	-1.1	-15.8
Private sector other dwellings	3,557	-1.5	-21.6
Seasonally Adjusted
Total dwelling units approved	13,060	2.7	-11.3
Private sector houses	8,217	-5.6	-19.8
Private sector other dwellings	4,464	27.0	10.1

Dwelling units approved

Private sector houses approved

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


TOTAL DWELLING UNITS

• The trend estimate for total dwelling units approved fell 1.1% in December 2004. The trend has fallen for the last eight months.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for total dwelling units approved rose 2.7%, to 13,060, in December 2004.

• The trend estimate for private sector houses approved fell 1.1% in December 2004. The trend has now fallen for fifteen consecutive months.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for private sector houses approved fell 5.6%, to 8,217, in December 2004. This is the lowest estimate since May 2001.

• The trend estimate for private sector other dwellings approved fell 1.5% in December 2004. The trend has fallen for the last seven months, although the rate of decline slowed in December 2004.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for private sector other dwellings approved rose 27.0%, to 4,464, in December 2004. This rise only partially offsets the declines of the previous six months. Some large approvals in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory contributed to the increase.

• The seasonally adjusted estimate of the value of total building approved fell 1.4%, to $4,134.4m, in December 2004. The value of new residential building approved rose 8.0%, to $2,541.6m.

REVISIONS THIS MONTH

Revisions have been made to total dwelling units in this issue:

	2003-04	2004-05	TOTAL
New South Wales	9	4	13
Victoria	-2	-33	-35
Queensland	3	-69	-66
South Australia	-1	6	5
Western Australia	-1	-1	-2
Tasmania	-	-	-
Northern Territory	-1	-	-1
Australian Capital Territory	-	-	-
TOTAL	7	-93	-86

A downward revision of $100m in September 2004 for non-residential building in Victoria was made when further investigation identified this work as engineering construction activity.

DATA NOTES

Estimates have been included in this issue for two councils unable to report all building work approved in their municipalities this month (Campbelltown in New South Wales and Light in South Australia).

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or David Finlay on Adelaide (08) 8237 7431.

SUMMARY COMMENTARY


SUMMARY COMMENTARY

VALUE OF BUILDING APPROVED

NEW RESIDENTIAL BUILDING

The trend estimate of the value of new residential building rose 0.5% in December 2004, after seven months of decline.

The trend estimate for private sector houses approved fell 1.1% in December 2004. The trend fell in New South Wales (-1.9%), Victoria (-2.5%) and Queensland (-1.5%). These falls were partially offset by rises in South Australia (+1.1%) and Western Australia (+1.6%).

		NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT	Aust.
Original
Dwelling units approved
	Private sector houses (no.)	1,515	2,011	1,686	719	1,531	201	26	72	7,761
	Total dwelling units (no.)	3,143	2,847	3,058	874	1,951	259	114	544	12,790
Percentage change from previous month
	Private sector houses (%)	-15.7	-24.9	-20.8	-2.0	-8.5	-6.9	-7.1	18.0	-16.7
	Total dwelling units (%)	6.0	-19.6	-2.2	-3.1	1.4	-4.4	28.1	98.5	-2.3
Seasonally Adjusted
Dwelling units approved
	Private sector houses (no.)	1,534	2,186	1,924	721	1,554	na	na	na	8,217
	Total dwelling units (no.)	2,966	3,022	3,331	876	1,949	252	na	na	13,060
Percentage change from previous month
	Private sector houses (%)	-2.1	-13.3	-8.8	6.1	0.6	na	na	na	-5.6
	Total dwelling units (%)	0.8	-10.7	6.1	3.4	8.8	-	na	na	2.7
Trend
Dwelling units approved
	Private sector houses (no.)	1,525	2,326	2,055	681	1,555	na	na	na	8,435
	Total dwelling units (no.)	2,776	3,254	3,204	820	1,875	250	97	139	12,415
Percentage change from previous month
	Private sector houses (%)	-1.9	-2.5	-1.5	1.1	1.6	na	na	na	-1.1
	Total dwelling units (%)	-2.3	-1.3	-1.6	-1.6	-0.5	4.2	-4.9	19.8	-1.1
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
na not available

DWELLING UNITS APPROVED

State Trends

NEW SOUTH WALES

The trend estimate for total dwelling units approved in New South Wales has fallen for the last nine months. The trend for private sector houses is showing declines for the last sixteen months.