CONSTRUCTION


BUILDING APPROVALS

After increasing since August 2009, the number of dwelling units approved in South Australia (in trend terms) has plateaued in the last two months with 1,097 approvals recorded in April 2010. Similarly, the number of dwelling units approved at the national level has been relatively stable in recent months with 15,060 approvals in April 2010. This stability interrupts the upward movement that began in February 2009.

The trend estimate for the number of private sector houses approved in South Australia rose slightly to 753 in April 2010. Private sector house approvals as a proportion of total dwelling units have fallen from 76.9% in July 2009 to 68.6% in April 2010.

In the year to April 2010, the total number of dwelling units approved in South Australia fell 5.9% over the previous year. Decreases occurred across all statistical divisions with the South East Statistical Division recording the largest fall (21.8%), followed by the Northern Statistical Division (18.4%).

DWELLING UNITS APPROVED, by Statistical Division, Original, South Australia
	Year ended April 2009		Year ended April 2010
	Dwelling units	Change over previous year	Dwelling units	Change over previous year
	no.	%	no.	%
Adelaide	8 870	2.4	8 622	-2.8
Outer Adelaide	1 669	4.6	1 532	-8.2
Yorke and Lower North	544	-10.7	459	-15.6
Murray Lands	499	14.4	463	-7.2
South East	527	35.8	412	-21.8
Eyre	316	14.5	264	-16.5
Northern	463	-2.9	378	-18.4
South Australia	12 888	3.6	12 130	-5.9
Source: Building Approvals, Australia - data available on request

Map of South Australia's Statistical Divisions (PDF 3.083MB)


CONSTRUCTION WORK DONE

In the December quarter 2009, the total value of building work done (in trend terms) in South Australia rose to $1,149.8m, an increase of 2.8% over the September quarter.

The trend estimate for the value of engineering work done has more than doubled (114.2%) between the December quarters of 2007 and 2009 ($628.7m to $1,346.9m). For the last two quarters, the value of engineering work done has exceeded the value of building work done. This upsurge in engineering construction is the focus of the feature article presented in the April 2010 issue of SA Stats.