Building Activity, Australia

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Provides estimates of value of building work and number of dwellings commenced, completed, under construction and in the pipeline

Reference period
June 2022
Released
19/10/2022

Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms:

  • Total dwelling commencements fell 2.7% to 48,076 dwellings.
  • New private sector house commencements fell 0.2% to 30,602 dwellings.
  • New private sector other residential commencements fell 3.1% to 16,348 dwellings.
  • The value of building work done fell 3.6% to $29.9b.

This release includes data on average commencement times, average completion times and abandonment rates for new dwellings in the Data downloads section. For more information about these data please see the June 2019 feature articles in the Article archive section.

Number of dwellings commenced

 

 Jun qtr 22
no.
Mar qtr 22 to Jun qtr 22
% change
Jun qtr 21 to Jun qtr 22
% change

Seasonally adjusted

Total dwelling units commenced48,076-2.7-28.9
New private sector houses30,602-0.2-27.9
New private sector other residential building16,348-3.1-31.8

 

 

The total number of dwelling units commenced in Australia fell 2.7% to 48,076 dwellings in the June quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms. The fall was driven by private sector other residential dwellings, which fell 3.1% to 16,348 dwellings and follows a fall of 4.9% in the March quarter. Private sector house commencements fell 0.2% to 30,602 dwellings and follows a fall of 8.6% in the March quarter.

The total number of dwellings under construction reached a record high of 241,926 in June, an additional 0.7% increase from the record high in March of 240,156 dwellings. This increase was driven by private sector new houses, which have increased to record highs since March 2021, with 102,908 new private houses under construction in June 2022.

Value of work done

Reference year for Chain Volume Measures is 2019-2020

 Jun qtr 22
$m
Mar qtr 22 to Jun qtr 22
% change
Jun qtr 21 to Jun qtr 22
% change

Seasonally adjusted chain volume measures

Total value of work done29,935.9-3.6-3.1
New residential building15,017.2-6.1-6.8
Alterations and additions to residential building2,709.2-3.0-0.4
Non-residential building12,209.5-0.51.1



 

The value of total building work done fell 3.6% to $29.9b in the June quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms. The fall was driven by new residential building work done, which fell 6.1% to $15.0b and follows a rise of 1.8% in the March quarter. Non-residential building work done fell 0.5% to $12.2b. Work done on new houses fell 11.8% to $8.9b, while new other residential building rose 3.7% to $6.1b.

Data downloads

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

File contents

Data files

Data Explorer datasets

Caution: Data in the Data Explorer is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the reference period when using Data Explorer.

Building Activity by state - value of building work and number of dwellings commenced, completed, under construction and in the pipeline.

About this issue

This publication updates the preliminary estimates released in Construction Work Done, Australia. The data in this publication are based on a response rate of approximately 85% of the value of building work done during the quarter. This is lower than the average response rate due to difficulties collecting data as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data are subject to revision when returns from the following quarter are processed. Final data for the June 2022 quarter will be released in the next release of this publication, Building Activity, Australia on 18 January 2023.

Several time series spreadsheets contain 'np' (not available for publication) annotations from the September quarter 2012 onwards. This is due to confidential data being contained in these series.

Inquiries

For inquiries about these and related statistics, contact the Customer Assistance Service via the ABS website Contact Us page. The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS will handle any personal information that you provide to us.

Changes this release

Revisions

Compared to the estimate published in Building Activity, Australia March 2022 released on 13 July 2022:

  • the total value of work done in Australia during the March 2022 quarter has been revised upwards by $536.9m or 1.7% (original, current price). 
  • the total value of work commenced in Australia during the March 2022 quarter has been revised downwards $316.7m or 0.9% (original, current price). There was a downward revision to total non-residential commencements of $501.6m (3.8%), and an upward revision to total residential commencements of $184.8m (0.9%).
  • the number of dwelling unit commencements in the March 2022 quarter has been revised upwards by 331 dwellings or 0.7% (original).

Suspension of trend series

The trend series attempts to measure underlying behaviour in construction activity. This measurement will be significantly affected by changes to regular patterns in activity during this time, as the construction industry faces on-going uncertainty. If the trend estimates in this publication were to be calculated without fully accounting for this irregular event, they would likely provide a misleading view of underlying building activity.

It may be some time before the underlying trend in building activity can be accurately estimated. The trend series have therefore been suspended starting from June 2020. The trend series will be reinstated when more certainty emerges in the underlying trend. 

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8752.0.

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