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SECTION 9 CONSTRUCTION



Building approvals

• There were 3,622 houses (trend) approved for construction in Western Australia in the three months to January 2009. This was 11% lower than the figure for the October 2008 quarter and the biggest fall through the year.
• In proportional terms, there was an even larger fall in approvals for other residential dwellings including semi detached houses; townhouses and flats; units and apartments (trend). The number of approvals fell 40% in the January quarter to 548 dwellings.
• Overall, the total number of dwellings approved (trend) decreased 16% in the January quarter.

NUMBER OF DWELLINGS APPROVED, Houses: Trend

28 BUILDING APPROVALS, By number of dwelling units approved and sector: Trend
		Houses		Other dwellings		Total dwellings
		Private	Total	Private	Total	Private	Total
Reference period		no.	no.	no.	no.	no.	no.
2006-2007		19 165	19 622	4 413	5 000	23 577	24 622
2007-2008		16 702	17 233	5 344	5 905	22 045	23 137
2008
	January	4 196	4 369	1 370	1 545	5 566	5 915
	April	4 091	4 242	1 394	1 518	5 485	5 760
	July	4 127	4 211	1 236	1 332	5 362	5 543
	October	3 976	4 052	829	913	4 805	4 966
2009
	January	3 571	3 622	466	548	4 038	4 170
Source: Building Approvals, Australia, cat. no. 8731.0.

• New residential building commencements declined by approximately 15% for the September quarter 2008. There was a very small increase (less than 0.3%) in buildings under construction while about 14% fewer new residential buildings were completed. The decline in commencements and completions was mainly due to slowing building activity on new houses.
• In the year to September 2008, new residential building activity fell across all stages of production. The number of new houses commenced fell by more than 23%, while houses under construction and completed fell by 12% and 22% respectively.
• Over the same period, building activity for other types of dwelling (apartments, units and other higher density accommodation) generally increased, with dwelling commencements for the September 2008 quarter being over 26% higher than in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

29 BUILDING ACTIVITY, By number of dwelling units and stage of production: Original
		New houses	New other residential building	Total residential building(a)
Reference period		no.	no.	no.
Commenced
2006-2007		19 896	4 752	24 647
2007-2008		16 924	5 347	22 272
2007
	September	4 341	1 372	5 714
2008
	June	4 597	1 362	5 959
	September	3 327	1 733	5 060
Under construction at end of reference period
2006-2007		15 057	6 440	21 497
2007-2008		13 145	7 244	20 388
2007
	September	14 323	6 520	20 843
2008
	June	13 145	7 244	20 388
	September	12 574	7 866	20 440
Completed
2006-2007		20 952	3 881	24 834
2007-2008		18 739	4 475	23 214
2007
	September	5 016	1 286	6 302
2008
	June	4 808	1 030	5 838
	September	3 906	1 110	5 016
(a) Excludes total alterations and additions, refurbishments and conversions.
Source: Building Activity, Australia, cat. no. 8752.0.