OCTOBER KEY FIGURES

		Oct 11	Sep 11 to Oct 11	Oct 10 to Oct 11
		no.	% change	% change
TREND
	Total dwelling units approved	11 561	-2.7	-16.9
	Private sector houses	7 329	-1.2	-11.6
	Private sector dwellings excluding houses	3 935	-5.2	-22.0
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED
	Total dwelling units approved	10 484	-10.7	-29.8
	Private sector houses	7 042	-7.5	-15.4
	Private sector dwellings excluding houses	3 241	-16.8	-44.6

Dwelling units approved

Private sector houses approved

OCTOBER KEY POINTS


TOTAL DWELLING UNITS

• The trend estimate for total dwellings approved fell 2.7% in October 2011 and has fallen for 12 months.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for total dwellings approved fell 10.7% in October following a fall of 14.2% in the previous month.

PRIVATE SECTOR HOUSES

• The trend estimate for private sector houses approved fell 1.2% in October and has fallen for 22 months.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for private sector houses fell 7.5% in October 2011 following a rise of 0.7% in the previous month.

PRIVATE SECTOR DWELLINGS EXCLUDING HOUSES

• The trend estimate for private sector dwellings excluding houses fell 5.2% in October and has fallen for the last 11 months.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate for private sector dwellings excluding houses fell 16.8% following a fall of 31.6% last month.

VALUE OF BUILDING APPROVED

• The trend estimate of the value of total building approved fell 1.3% in October and has fallen for 12 months. The value of residential building fell 1.3% and has fallen for the last 13 months. The value of non-residential building fell 1.1% and has now fallen for the last 11 months.
• The seasonally adjusted estimate of the value of total building approved fell 2.4% in October following a fall of 14.1% last month. The value of residential building fell 6.1% in October and the value of non-residential building rose 4.7%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
October 2011 (Additional Information)	13 December 2011
November 2011	10 January 2012
November 2011 (Additional Information)	18 January 2012
December 2011	2 February 2012
December 2011 (Additional Information)	10 February 2012
January 2012	1 March 2012
January 2012 (Additional Information)	9 March 2012
February 2012	2 April 2012

CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

The chain volume estimates have been re-referenced to 2009-10. Additivity is preserved in the quarters of the reference year and subsequent quarters. Re-referencing affects the level of, but not the movements in, chain volume estimates.


DATA NOTES

Widespread flooding, and other natural disasters, in the eastern states during late 2010 and early 2011 have not adversely affected participation by providers in the Building Approvals collection or the quality of estimates in this release. However, these events may have had an impact on the number of approved dwellings and the value of approved work.

The trend estimates should be interpreted with caution as the underlying behaviour of building approvals may be affected by initiatives within the Government stimulus package, which included the "Building the Education Revolution" (BER) program and the Social Housing Initiative as well as other developments associated with global economic conditions. From June 2009 to February 2010 BER impacts were quantified and removed from the trend estimates because of their short term nature. From April 2010 these impacts are no longer removed from the trend estimates as their effect has significantly declined. For more details on trend estimates, please see paragraphs 19 to 21 of the explanatory notes.


REVISIONS THIS MONTH

Revisions to the total number of dwelling units approved in this issue are:

	2010-11	2011-12	TOTAL
NSW	-21	4	-17
Vic.	114	-	114
Qld	-	-	-
SA	-	-	-
WA	-	12	12
Tas.	-	10	10
NT	27	-	27
ACT	-	-	-
Total	120	26	146

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.