CONSTRUCTION


BUILDING APPROVALS

The number of dwelling units approved in South Australia (in trend terms) has fallen for the second consecutive month, with 1,079 approvals in July 2010. This represents a fall of 1.8% over the estimate for June 2010 (1,099) but is 12.0% higher than the previous low of 963 approvals in July 2009. Nationally, the number of dwelling units approved has fallen for the fifth consecutive month. The estimate of 13,608 in July 2010 is 11.3% below the peak recorded earlier in the year (15,336 approvals February 2010).

The trend estimate for the number of private sector houses approved in South Australia fell to 691 in July 2010. Private sector house approvals as a proportion of total dwelling units have fallen from a high of 76.5% in February 2009 to 64.0% in July 2010.

In the year to July 2010, the total number of dwelling units approved in South Australia rose 9.4% over the previous year. Increases were recorded in five of the seven Statistical Divisions (SD) with the largest increase in the Northern SD (up 19.7%). The largest decrease was in the South East SD (down 29.1%). This follows a 44.7% increase for this SD during the year ended July 2009.

DWELLING UNITS APPROVED, by Statistical Division, Original, South Australia
	Year ended July 2009		Year ended July 2010
	Dwelling units	Change over previous year	Dwelling units	Change over previous year
	no.	%	no.	%
Adelaide	8 017	-16.8	9 014	12.4
Outer Adelaide	1 533	-10.4	1 715	11.9
Yorke and Lower North	495	-24.3	483	-2.4
Murray Lands	411	-20.3	441	7.3
South East	547	44.7	388	-29.1
Eyre	239	-28.4	286	19.7
Northern	405	-17.5	418	3.2
South Australia	11 647	-15.1	12 745	9.4
Source: Building Approvals, Australia - data available on request

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


CONSTRUCTION WORK DONE

In the March quarter 2010, the total value of building work done (in trend terms) in South Australia rose to $1,221.5m, an increase of 4.4% over the December quarter 2009.

Between the December quarters 2007 and 2009, the trend estimate for the value of engineering work done rose sharply ($628.0m to $1,283.0m) before plateauing in the March quarter 2010 ($1,285.0m). For the last three 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.