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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
September 2022
Released
18/01/2023

Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms:

  • Total dwelling commencements fell 5.2% to 45,489 dwellings.
  • New private sector house commencements fell 4.9% to 28,895 dwellings.
  • New private sector other residential commencements fell 5.2% to 15,618 dwellings.
  • The value of building work done rose 1.5% to $30.6b.

Reinstatement of trend series

The trend series for Building Activity have been reviewed and reinstated.

Further details on the reinstatement of trend are available in the changes this release section below.

Number of dwellings commenced

 

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

Seasonally adjusted

Total dwelling units commenced45,489-5.2-21.2
New private sector houses28,895-4.9-19.2
New private sector other residential building15,618-5.2-25.0
Trend
Total dwelling units commenced45,747-3.9-17.7
New private sector houses28,896-3.6-18.3
New private sector other residential building15,775-3.5-17.1

 

 

The total number of dwelling units commenced in Australia fell 5.2% to 45,489 dwellings in the September quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms. The fall was driven by private sector other residential dwellings, which fell 5.2% to 15,618 dwellings and follows a fall of 4.5% in the June quarter. Private sector house commencements fell 4.9% to 28,895 dwellings and follows a fall of 1.0% in the June quarter.

The total number of dwellings under construction have reached record highs since December 2021. Dwellings under construction reached a new record of 244,479 in September, an additional 0.6% increase from the record in June of 243,078 dwellings. Private sector new houses have increased to record highs since March 2021, with 103,124 new private houses under construction in September 2022.

Value of work done

Reference year for Chain Volume Measures is 2020-2021

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

Seasonally adjusted chain volume measures

Total value of work done30,621.21.5-1.7
New residential building15,418.62.1-4.8
Alterations and additions to residential building2,626.1-5.5-11.7
Non-residential building12,576.52.34.9
Trend
Total value of work done30,412.8-0.7-2.8
New residential building15,242.5-1.7-6.4
Alterations and additions to residential building2,677.6-2.7-7.7
Non-residential building12,490.00.93.2



 

The value of total building work done rose 1.5% to $30.6b in the September quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms. The increase was driven by new residential building work done, which rose 2.1% to $15.4b and follows a fall of 6.5% in the June quarter. Non-residential building work done rose 2.3% to $12.6b. Work done on new houses rose 1.2% to $9.1b, while new other residential building rose 3.3% to $6.3b.

Data downloads

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

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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 September 2022 quarter will be released in the next release of this publication, Building Activity, Australia on 12 April 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

Review of seasonal adjustment

Review of trend suspension

Chain volume reference year updated

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8752.0.

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