In recent years there has been an increase in construction activity and housing prices in the Northern Territory. While the value of both engineering and building completions continue to climb each year the number of residential dwellings built each year has stabilised.
Applications for public housing declined by 12.8% between 2004-05 and 2005-06, while over the same period the demand for public housing (number of people on the waiting list) increased by 9.7%. The proportion of applicants experiencing wait times of more than six months for public housing rose from 47.6% to 54.6%. Public housing stock numbers during the same period dropped from 5542 to 5392. Approximately 4.4% of public housing stock was vacant in 2005-06.
Public Housing Wait time in months, Northern Territory
: 2004-05 to 2005-06
Total residential building approvals have stabilised over the last year compared with the large increases seen in previous years. New house approvals in the NT have changed little, while approvals of other residential buildings have dropped from 702 to 623. While the total number of residential building approvals have dropped by 5.6%, their value has increased by 4.6% to $330 million.
In 2005-06 the private sector did 95.6% of the total value of engineering construction in the Northern Territory. Engineering construction has been in a steady upwards trend since 2001-02. Between 2000-01 and 2001-02 there was a 629% increase in the value of engineering, largely due to the Adelaide to Darwin railway line. Other major projects contributing to the value of engineering in the Northern Territory since the completion of the railway line include the $3 billion Wickham Point LNG Plant and pipeline from the offshore Bayu-Undan gas fields and the $2 billion expansion of Alcan's Gove refinery.
Value of engineering construction, Northern Territory
: 2000-01 to 2005-06
In the Northern Territory in the 2005-06 financial year 46% of building completions were non residential buildings, compared to 42.1% in 2004-05 period. New residential building completions dropped from 49.7% in 2004-05 to 42.5% in 2005-06, however, this decrease was offset by an increase in the value of alterations and additions to 11.5% of the total value of building completions.
Further information of construction activity and housing is available from the following sources:
Housing Finance, Australia (cat. no. 5609.0)
Engineering Construction Activity, Australia (cat. no. 8762.0)
Building Approvals (cat. no. 8731.0)
Dwelling Unit Commencements, Australia, Preliminary (cat. no. 8750.0)
Construction Work Done,Preliminary (cat. no. 8755.0)
Department of Local Government, Housing and Sport.
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