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AUGUST KEY FIGURES

	Aug 05	Jul 05 to Aug 05	Aug 04 to Aug 05
	no.	% change	% change
Trend
Total dwelling units approved	12 585	-1.8	-5.8
Private sector houses	8 940	0.3	1.5
Private sector other dwellings	3 281	-8.0	-21.9
Seasonally Adjusted
Total dwelling units approved	11 794	-8.0	-11.7
Private sector houses	8 524	-3.5	-4.6
Private sector other dwellings	2 909	-21.2	-28.9

Dwelling units approved, Total number

Private sector houses approved, Total number

AUGUST KEY POINTS


TOTAL DWELLING UNITS

• The trend for total dwelling approvals is now showing a fall for the past four months, down 1.8% in August 2005.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for total dwelling units approved fell 8.0%, to 11,794, in August 2005. This is the lowest estimate since April 2001.

• The trend estimate of private sector house approvals rose 0.3% in August 2005, the seventh consecutive monthly rise.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for private sector houses approved fell 3.5%, to 8,524, in August 2005.

• The trend estimate of private sector other dwellings approved fell 8.0% in August 2005.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for private sector other dwellings approved fell 21.2%, to 2,909, in August 2005. This is the lowest level since February 2001.

• The trend estimate of the value of total building approved fell 0.4% in August 2005. The value of new residential building approved fell 1.0% and the value of alterations and additions fell 1.9%. The value of non-residential building approved continued to rise in August (+0.8%), although the rate of growth is slowing.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate of the value of total building approved fell 13.2%, to $4,464.1m, in August 2005. The value of new residential building approved fell 5.2%, to $2,401.1m. The value of alterations and additions fell 16.5%, to $364.7m, the lowest level since December 2002.

	NSW	Vic.	Qld.	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT	TOTAL
2004-05	210	-7	74	8	-16	-1	-	-	268
2005-06	-34	-	34	-1	-16	3	-	-	-14
Total	176	-7	108	7	-32	2	-	-	254

There has been significant revision to data for the City of Hornsby (NSW) following the resolution of a reporting system problem spanning the past 12 months.

DATA NOTES

Estimates have been included in this issue for the municipality of Maryborough in Queensland which was unable to report all building work approved in their municipality this month.

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.

VALUE OF BUILDING APPROVED


NEW RESIDENTIAL BUILDING

The trend estimate of the value of new residential building is showing a decline for the third consecutive month, after eight months of growth. The trend fell 1.0% in August 2005.

		NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT	Aust.
		no.	no.	no.	no.	no.	no.	no.	no.	no.
New houses		19 231	31 332	24 654	8 189	19 354	2 423	675	973	106 831
New semidetached, row or terrace houses, townhouses etc of:
	One storey	2 398	2 639	2 004	1 269	1 858	232	97	2	10 499
	Two or more storeys	4 923	2 764	3 078	503	685	22	27	50	12 052
	Total	7 321	5 403	5 082	1 772	2 543	254	124	52	22 551
New flats, units, apartments in a building of:
	One or two storeys	1 159	429	1 393	148	449	10	90	58	3 736
	Three storeys	1 762	681	2 041	108	186	1	28	71	4 878
	Four or more storeys	7 517	3 300	5 120	349	1 378	-	460	1 107	19 231
	Total	10 438	4 410	8 554	605	2 013	11	578	1 236	27 845
Total new other residential building		17 759	9 813	13 636	2 377	4 556	265	702	1 288	50 396
Other
	Alterations and additions to residential building	180	164	62	27	93	3	4	5	538
	Conversion	481	1 001	23	56	11	63	4	-	1 639
	Non-residential building	42	63	25	7	31	9	3	1	181
Total building		37 693	42 373	38 400	10 656	24 045	2 763	1 388	2 267	159 585
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

SUMMARY COMMENT

Of the 159,585 dwelling units approved in Australia in 2004-05, 106,831 (67.9%) were new houses. The mix of dwelling types varied significantly across the States and Territories. Less than half of the dwelling units approved were new houses in the Northern Territory (48.9%) and the Australian Capital Territory (43.0%). In comparison, new houses accounted for over 75% of all dwelling units in Victoria (76.1%), South Australia (77.5%), Western Australia (80.8%) and Tasmania (90.1%).

DWELLINGS APPROVED, States and territories - By type of dwelling - 2004-05

The trend estimate for private sector houses continued to rise in August 2005 (+0.3%), although growth is slowing. The trend rose in Queensland (+1.1%), New South Wales (+0.8%) and Victoria (+0.4%), and fell in Western Australia (-0.7%) and South Australia (-0.3%).

		NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT	Aust.
Original
Dwelling units approved
	Private sector houses (no.)	1 602	2 503	2 384	721	1 751	191	57	84	9 293
	Total dwelling units (no.)	2 770	3 071	3 311	1 003	2 249	227	133	204	12 968
Percentage change from previous month
	Private sector houses (%)	-11.3	11.4	10.7	11.8	5.9	-8.6	23.9	-1.2	5.1
	Total dwelling units (%)	-6.3	12.0	-3.2	10.6	9.1	2.3	-27.3	129.2	3.1
Seasonally Adjusted
Dwelling units approved
	Private sector houses (no.)	1 438	2 506	2 082	659	1 533	na	na	na	8 524
	Total dwelling units (no.)	2 428	2 960	2 910	918	2 043	208	na	na	11 794
Percentage change from previous month
	Private sector houses (%)	-26.1	15.1	-1.8	1.2	-4.8	na	na	na	-3.5
	Total dwelling units (%)	-20.8	-0.1	-14.6	3.0	2.3	-3.3	na	na	-8.0
Trend
Dwelling units approved
	Private sector houses (no.)	1 643	2 637	2 116	655	1 557	na	na	na	8 940
	Total dwelling units (no.)	2 675	3 391	3 139	884	2 016	213	112	154	12 585
Percentage change from previous month
	Private sector houses (%)	0.8	0.4	1.1	-0.3	-0.7	na	na	na	0.3
	Total dwelling units (%)	-2.8	-3.3	-1.3	0.5	-0.7	-1.4	7.7	3.4	-1.8
na not available