NAME OF ORGANISATION
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
OVERVIEW
The Input to the House Construction Industry index measures changes in the prices paid for selected inputs used in the construction of detached houses in each of the six state capital cities.
The Input to the House construction industry index relates to products used by establishments classified to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 edition under Class 3011 – House construction.
PURPOSE
The Input to the House Construction Industry index is used by government and private sectors, primarily for adjusting business contracts.
The index is also used for economic analysis.
SCOPE
For the Input to the House Construction Industry index, the prices are collected at the midpoint of the specified month in the quarter, or the nearest trading day, to which the index refers. They relate to specified standards of each input and are obtained from representative suppliers of the products used in the construction of detached houses in each of the six state capitals. These suppliers include manufacturers, wholesalers, building supply merchants, hardware stores and importers.
In general the point of pricing is delivered on site but in some cases it has been necessary to use the nearest realistic price available (e.g. delivered to electrical contractors store), local prices are used in the indexes for each of the six state capital cities.
As far as possible, actual transaction price are used in the index, that is; prices actually paid by building contractors or subcontractors to suppliers for materials delivered onto the building sites in the metropolitan area of the six state capital cities.
DATA DETAIL
Conceptual framework
The Input to the House Construction Industry index relates to all inputs, fittings and fixtures which form an integral part of the structures of detached house buildings and which are customarily installed before the buildings are occupied.
The products and weights for the price index of Input to the House construction industry were derived from reported quantities of each product used in selected representative houses in the three years ending 2002–03, valued at the September quarter 2005 prices.
The weighting pattern for each capital city index will reflect variations in prices for the cities as applied to an Australian average basket of house building materials, with some allowance for city specific building practices e.g. the differential use of steel and timber materials in Perth and Adelaide compared with the other capital cities. The weighting patterns for the price index of Input into the House construction industry are set out in Appendix 2 of the September quarter 2005 issue of this publication.
Main outputs
Index numbers, quarterly and annual index percentage changes and points contributions (to the weighted average of the six State capital cities indexes).
Classifications
For the Input to the House Construction Industry index, indexes for each state capital are published together with a weighted six state capitals series for a range of materials groups. These are groupings commonly used in the house construction building industry.
The Input to the House construction industry index relates to products used by establishments classified to ANZSIC 2006 Class 3011 – House construction.
Other concepts (summary)
All concepts have been noted in Conceptual Framework.
GEOGRAPHIC DETAIL
Six State Capital Cities (Weight Average)
New South Wales
Victoria
Western Australia
South Australia
Tasmania
Queensland
Comments and/or Other Regions
Geographic coverage is for the individual and combined six state capital cities.
COLLECTION FREQUENCY
Quarterly
Frequency comments
Up to June 1997 collection was monthly. From that date collection is quarterly.
COLLECTION HISTORY
The Price Index Materials Used in House Building, Six State Capital Cities, was first published in September 1970 on an index reference period of 1966-67 = 100.0. The weighting pattern was derived from estimated materials usage in 1968-69.
From the September quarter 2012, the Materials Used in House Building index has been renamed ‘Input to the House Construction Industry’.
The current weights for the index is derived from data for the three years ending 2002-03 and the index reference period is financial year 2011-12 = 100.0
DATA AVAILABILITY
Yes
Data availability comments
Data is currently available in catalogue number 6427.0, Producer Price Indexes, Australia and on the ABS web site <www.abs.gov.au>.
