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Building Approvals, Australia

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Provides the number of dwelling units and value of buildings approved

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Reference period
August 2020
Released
30/09/2020
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Key statistics

  • The seasonally adjusted estimate for total dwellings approved fell 1.6% in August.
  • Private sector dwellings excluding houses fell 11.0%, while private sector houses rose 4.8%, in seasonally adjusted terms.
  • The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of non-residential building approved rose 40.7%.

Main features

August key figures
  Aug 20Jul 20 to Aug 20Aug 19 to Aug 20
  no.%%
Seasonally adjusted   
 Total dwelling units approved13 691  -1.6   0.6
 Private sector houses  9 312    4.8 12.4
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses  4 206 -11.0-18.4

 

The number of dwellings approved in Australia fell 1.6% in August, in seasonally adjusted terms. The fall was driven by private sector dwellings excluding houses, which decreased by 11.0%. A significant fall in the number of apartments approved in August partially offset the rise in July. Private sector houses rose 4.8% in August, driven by strength in Western Australia and Queensland.

Dwellings approved, states and territories
Seasonally adjusted
Private sector housesPrivate sector housesTotal dwelling units approvedTotal dwelling units approved
no.Monthly % changeno.Monthly % change
New South Wales2,146-0.33,364-14.2
Victoria3,250-1.05,1811.8
Queensland1,77613.92,4878.1
South Australia6481.4753-4.8
Western Australia1,15334.91,30133.8
Tasmanianana237-26.2
Northern Territorynananana
Australian Capital Territorynananana
Australia9,3124.813,691-1.6
Value of building approved, by building type
Seasonally adjusted
$mMonthly % change
New residential building4,903.64.0
Alterations and additions to residential building784.37.0
Total residential building5,687.94.4
Non-residential building4,666.640.7
Total building10,354.418.1

Across the states and territories, dwelling approvals fell in Tasmania (26.2%), New South Wales (14.2%) and South Australia (4.8%). Rises were recorded in Western Australia (33.8%), Queensland (8.1%) and Victoria (1.8%).

Approvals for private sector houses rose in Western Australia (34.9%), Queensland (13.9%) and South Australia (1.4%). Declines were recorded in Victoria (1.0%) and New South Wales (0.3%).

The value of total building approved rose 18.1% in August, in seasonally adjusted terms. The value of non-residential building rose 40.7%, after falling 18.8% in July. The rise in August was driven by large public projects in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

The value of total residential building also rose in August (4.4%). This was partly driven by an increase in the value of residential alterations and additions (7.0%), rising to the highest level since April 2016.

Notes

Data notes

This publication provides the number of dwelling units and value of buildings approved released in Building Approvals, Australia (cat. no. 8731.0) on 30 September 2020.

Small area data cubes and CSV files will be made available in an “Additional Information” release five business days after the main publication. These will be for Statistical Area Level 2 and Local Government Areas. Release dates are published under the “Forthcoming Issues” section of the publication and in ABS Release Advice.

A number of time series spreadsheets contain ‘np’ (not available for publication) annotations. This is due to confidential data being contained in these series

Coronavirus (COVID-19) in August

The World Health Organisation (WHO) commenced daily situation reports of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak on 21 January 2020 and identified it as an international health emergency on 30 January. In March, regulations to encourage social distancing saw further impacts on the ability of businesses to trade as normal, resulting in rising unemployment and reduced household income. Travel restrictions have reduced the number of overseas arrivals to near-zero, resulting in less housing demand from overseas migrants.

After a strong rise in July, residential approvals stabilised in August following the relaxation of COVID-19 related restrictions in most states and territories. Private house approvals rose to the highest level since February 2019. However, apartment approvals continue to drag on the total dwellings series, with the total other residential series remaining close to eight-year lows. The value of alterations and additions to residential buildings was strong in August (+7.0%), the highest level recorded since April 2016 ($784m). The value of non-residential building approved rose 40.7% in August, driven by the public sector, while private sector non-residential approvals continued to fall.

Data collection activities continued to be largely unaffected in the August 2020 reference period. The ABS appreciates the support of federal, state and local government in continuing to provide the data to compile this publication.

Suspension of trend series

The trend series attempts to measure underlying behaviour in building approval activity. In the short term, this measurement will be significantly affected by changes to regular patterns in approval activity during this time, as potential home builders face 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 approval activity.

It may be some time before the underlying trend in building approvals can be accurately estimated. The Building Approvals monthly trend series have therefore been suspended starting from May 2020, while the quarterly series have been suspended from the June 2020 quarter. The trend series will be reinstated when more certainty emerges in the underlying trend.

Update to seasonal adjustment methods

Building Approvals uses the concurrent seasonal adjustment method, meaning that seasonal factors are re-estimated each time a new data point becomes available. If not appropriately accounted for, unusual real-world events, such as COVID-19, can distort estimates calculated using this method. From May 2020, seasonal factors are being calculated using data up to and including April 2020, then projected from May 2020 onwards. This approach, known as the forward factor method, ensures that the seasonal factors are not distorted by COVID-19 impacts. 

Revisions this month

In this release, revisions are provided for the time period from July 2019 to July 2020. Further information about potential sources of revisions can be found in the feature article released with the January 2016 8731.0 publication - "Revisions to Building Approval Statistics".

Revisions to the total number of dwelling units approved in this issue are:

 
Dwellings2019-202020-21
NSW5518
Vic.27729
Qld9933
SA18-
WA39
Tas.2-
NT-8-
ACT--
Total44689

 

Inquiries

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Data downloads - time series spreadsheets

These data downloads are currently available in file formats that may not be accessible for users on assistive devices, such as screen readers. Request an accessible version of these files.

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

Data downloads - data cubes

I-note

Small area data cubes

Data files

ABS.Stat datasets

Help for: ABS.Stat Datasets

http://stat.data.abs.gov.au/Index.aspx?DatasetCode=BA_GCCSA

http://stat.data.abs.gov.au/Index.aspx?DatasetCode=ABS_BA_SA2_ASGS2016

http://stat.data.abs.gov.au/Index.aspx?DatasetCode=ABS_BLDG_APPROVALS_LGA2019

http://stat.data.abs.gov.au/Index.aspx?DatasetCode=ABS_BLDG_APPROVALS_LGA2020

Interactive map

To view the interactive map, click here

  • Note that the interactive map will be offline soon after this publication release and will be refreshed with the current month's data within 24 hours.

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History of changes

08/10/2020 - As advertised in the main release of this publication on 30 September, 2020, this additional information release contains the small area Excel data cubes and CSV files for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years. An article titled 'Small area demolition approvals' has also been released containing preliminary data on the number of demolition approvals.

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8731.0

Article archive

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Methodology

Building Approvals, Australia methodology, August 2020

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