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MARCH KEY FIGURES

	Mar qtr 05	Dec qtr 04 to Mar qtr 05	Mar qtr 04 to Mar qtr 05
	$m	% change	% change
TREND ESTIMATES(a)
Value of Work Done	12,269.6	-1.1	-3.4
New residential building	6,883.5	-2.2	-5.6
Alterations and additions to residential building	1,297.2	-1.9	-3.5
Non-residential building	4,090.0	1.1	0.8
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES(a)
Value of Work Done	12,272.1	-1.5	-3.5
New residential building	6,897.6	-1.0	-5.8
Alterations and additions to residential building	1,281.5	-3.4	-3.9
Non-residential building	4,093.1	-1.7	0.7
(a) Chain volume measures, reference year 2002-03.

Value of work done, Volume terms

Value of work done, Volume terms - Trend estimates

MARCH KEY POINTS


VALUE OF WORK DONE, VOLUME TERMS

TREND ESTIMATES

• The trend estimate of the value of total building work done fell 1.1% in the March quarter 2005, the third consecutive quarterly fall.
• The value of new residential building work done fell 2.2% in the latest quarter. New houses fell 2.6% and new other residential buildings fell 1.6%. Alterations and additions fell 1.9%, however non-residential work done in the quarter rose 1.1%.

• In seasonally adjusted terms, total building work done fell 1.5% in the March quarter 2005, to $12,272.1m.
• New residential work fell 1.0%, to $6,897.6m. New houses fell 1.0%, to $4,544.5m, while new other residential building also fell 1.0%, to $2,353.1m. Alterations and additions fell 3.4% to $1,281.5m. Non-residential work done in the fell 1.7%, to $4,093.1m, following a rise of 9.2% in the previous quarter.

CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

Time series spreadsheets will be released in Excel format for the first time with the June quarter 2005 issue of this publication on 14 October 2005. A concordance between the current Lotus 1,2,3 spreadsheets and the proposed Excel spreadsheets is available in Information Paper: Changes to Ausstats Tables for Building Activity, Australia and Construction Activity, Chain Volume Measures, Australia (cat. no. 8752.0.55.001).

SIGNIFICANT REVISIONS THIS ISSUE

Compared with the estimates in current price original terms published in the previous issue of this publication:

• the total number of dwellings commenced during the December quarter 2004 has been revised downwards by 314 (-0.8%). This was mainly the result of downward revisions of 100 (-3.4%) in Western Australia, 71 (-0.6%) in Victoria and 64 (-0.6%) in New South Wales.
• the total value of building work commenced during the December quarter 2004 has been revised upwards by $69.0m (+0.5%).

VALUE OF WORK DONE VOLUME TERMS MARCH QTR 2005


SUMMARY COMMENTS

• In the March quarter 2005, the seasonally adjusted estimate of total building work done fell in half of the states and territories with Victoria (-9.1%) and South Australia (-3.5%) recording the largest falls. These falls offset rises in Queensland (+1.2%), Western Australia (+4.9%), the Northern Territory (+19.5%) and the Australian Capital Territory (+13.3%).
• In original terms, all states fell with Victoria (-18.1%), South Australia (-14.7%) and Tasmania (-14.7%) recording the largest falls in total building work done. The increases in original terms were confined to the Northern Territory (+1.4%) and the Australian Capital Territory (+3.6%).

		NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT	Aust.
Original(a)
Value of work done
	New residential building ($m)	1,764.9	1,716.3	1,587.5	357.7	723.9	90.5	57.0	104.6	6,402.6
	Alterations and additions to residential building ($m)	428.1	350.6	191.9	71.1	78.5	19.3	10.0	16.9	1,166.4
	Non-residential building ($m)	1,161.8	1,123.6	683.8	246.5	361.0	47.5	47.1	80.5	3,751.8
	Total building ($m)	3,354.8	3,190.6	2,463.2	675.3	1,163.4	157.3	114.1	202.1	11,320.8
Percentage change
	New residential building (%)	-11.7	-17.2	-10.5	-10.1	-0.4	-15.4	-5.9	-5.2	-11.7
	Alterations and additions to residential building (%)	-21.7	-16.0	-16.4	2.1	2.7	-17.5	-14.9	-23.6	-16.5
	Non-residential building (%)	-13.7	-20.0	-14.8	-23.9	-1.1	-12.0	17.2	28.8	-14.7
	Total building (%)	-13.8	-18.1	-12.2	-14.7	-0.5	-14.7	1.4	3.6	-13.2
Seasonally Adjusted(a)
Value of work done
	New residential building ($m)	1,910.2	1,810.9	1,726.0	381.1	729.0	94.3	na	120.1	6,897.6
	Alterations and additions to residential building ($m)	459.7	380.6	221.4	75.2	80.0	21.7	na	19.8	1,281.5
	Non-residential building ($m)	1,227.7	1,257.6	758.4	265.2	383.3	55.6	na	77.2	4,093.1
	Total building ($m)	3,597.6	3,449.1	2,705.7	721.5	1,192.3	171.6	127.1	217.0	12,272.1
Percentage change
	New residential building (%)	1.4	-12.2	1.3	1.3	2.4	-6.0	na	7.8	-1.0
	Alterations and additions to residential building (%)	-10.1	-6.8	6.3	11.3	4.8	-0.4	na	-3.1	-3.4
	Non-residential building (%)	-3.2	-5.1	-0.3	-12.7	10.0	11.3	na	29.3	-1.7
	Total building (%)	-1.8	-9.1	1.2	-3.5	4.9	-0.3	19.5	13.3	-1.5
na not available
(a) Chain volume measures, reference year 2002-03.

VALUE OF WORK DONE VOLUME TERMS


TREND ESTIMATES

New South Wales, Victoria

Queensland, Western Australia

South Australia, Tasmania

Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory

VALUE OF WORK COMMENCED VOLUME TERMS


TREND AND SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES

	Mar qtr 05	Dec qtr 04 to Mar qtr 05	Mar qtr 04 to Mar qtr 05
	$m	% change	% change
Trend(a)
Value of work commenced	11,777.2	-1.2	-6.0
New residential building	6,391.1	-4.2	-13.5
Alterations and additions to residential building	1,237.1	-1.3	-4.0
Non-residential building	4,068.5	1.6	5.8
Seasonally Adjusted(a)
Value of work commenced	11,695.6	-2.7	-6.4
New residential building	6,387.6	-5.2	-13.2
Alterations and additions to residential building	1,241.3	-0.4	0.1
Non-residential building	4,066.7	0.8	4.4
(a) Chain volume measures, reference year 2002-03.

TREND

• The March quarter 2005 trend estimate of the total value of building work commenced fell 1.2% from the December quarter 2004 estimate.
• The value of new residential building commenced has fallen for the past four quarters, falling 4.2% in the March quarter 2005. New house commencements show a decline over the past four quarters, down 4.7% in the March quarter 2005. New other residential building fell 2.5%. Alterations and additions to residential buildings fell 1.3%, the fourth consecutive quarterly decline. Non-residential building commencements are showing rises for the past three quarters, rising 1.6% in the March quarter 2005.

Value of Work Commenced in Volume Terms, Trend

• In seasonally adjusted terms, the total value of building work commenced fell 2.7% in the March quarter 2005, to $11,695.6m.
• Commencements of new residential buildings fell 5.2%, to $6,387.6m. New house commencements fell 6.3% to $4,292.3m, while new other residential building fell 2.9% to $2,095.2m. Alterations and additions fell 0.4% to $1,241.3m.
• Non-residential work commenced was rose 0.8%, to $4,066.7m.