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
March 2023
Released
12/07/2023

Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms:

 

  • Total dwelling commencements rose 14.0% to 46,546 dwellings.
  • New private sector house commencements fell 5.5% to 26,026 dwellings.
  • New private sector other residential commencements rose 57.2% to 19,344 dwellings.
  • The value of total building work done fell 0.4% to $30.7b.

Number of dwellings commenced

Number of dwellings commenced, seasonally adjusted
 Mar qtr 23
no.
Dec qtr 22 to Mar qtr 23
% change
Mar qtr 22 to Mar qtr 23
% change
New private sector houses26,026-5.5-15.8
New private sector other residential building19,34457.211.8
Total dwelling units commenced46,54614.0-6.6

 

 

Number of dwellings commenced, trend
 Mar qtr 23
no.
Dec qtr 22 to Mar qtr 23
% change
Mar qtr 22 to Mar qtr 23
% change
New private sector houses26,144-5.0-17.0
New private sector other residential building16,4799.8-6.3
Total dwelling units commenced43,7010.4-13.4

 

The total number of dwelling units commenced in Australia rose 14.0% to 46,546 dwellings in the March quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms. Private sector other residential buildings drove the increase, rising 57.2% to 19,344 dwellings and are 11.8% higher for the year. Private sector house commencements fell 5.5% to 26,026 dwellings, following a fall of 4.6% in the December quarter and are down 15.8% for the year.

Dwellings under construction increased 1.3% to 240,813 dwellings in the March quarter. New houses accounted for 103,778 of the dwellings under construction.

Value of work done

Value of work done, seasonally adjusted chain volume measures (a)
 Mar qtr 23
$m
Dec qtr 22 to Mar qtr 23
% change
Mar qtr 22 to Mar qtr 23
% change
New residential building15,425.6-2.0-4.7
Alterations and additions to residential building2,678.52.1-6.2
Non-residential building12,613.81.22.8
Total value of work done30,718.0-0.4-1.9
Value of work done, trend chain volume measures (a)
 Mar qtr 23
$m
Dec qtr 22 to Mar qtr 23
% change
Mar qtr 22 to Mar qtr 23
% change
New residential building15,625.80.5-0.9
Alterations and additions to residential building2,640.2-0.6-7.1
Non-residential building12,611.60.22.8
Total value of work done30,880.00.30.0

(a) Reference year for Chain Volume Measures is 2020-2021

The value of total building work done fell 0.4% to $30.7b in March quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms. The fall was driven by new residential building work done, which fell 2.0% to $15.4b and follows an increase of 1.0% in the December quarter. Work done on non-residential building rose 1.2% to $12.6b and is 2.8% higher for the year. Work done on alterations and additions to residential buildings rose 2.1% to $2.7b.

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 March 2023 quarter will be released in the next release of this publication, Building Activity, Australia on 18 October 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.

Enquiries

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Changes this release

Revisions

Article archive

The following data cubes provide additional insights into Building Activity and are updated annually. Refer to the Data Downloads section of the relevant Building Activity release.

June quarter:

  • Building Activity Average Dwelling Commencement Times
  • Building Activity Average Dwelling Completion times
  • Building Activity Abandonment Rates for New Dwellings

December quarter:

  • Building Activity Average Cost
  • Building Activity Average Floor Area

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8752.0.

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