Building Approvals, Australia

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Provides the number of dwelling units and value of buildings approved

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Reference period
December 2022
Released
2/02/2023
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Key statistics

The December 2022 seasonally adjusted estimate: 

  • Total dwellings approved rose 18.5%.
  • Private sector dwellings excluding houses approved rose 56.6%, while private sector houses fell 2.3%.
  • The value of non-residential building fell 1.7%.

  • The value of total building rose 3.0%.

Dwellings approved

December key figures
 Dec 22 (no.)Monthly change (%)Yearly change (%)
Seasonally adjusted
 Total dwelling units approved16,55618.5-3.8
 Private sector houses8,903-2.3-11.7
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses7,09156.62.9
Trend
 Total dwelling units approved15,448-0.4-6.6
 Private sector houses9,051-2.0-10.1
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses6,0251.3-1.1
  1. Trend break added to 'Total dwelling units approved' trend series for February 2021

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the number of dwellings approved in Australia rose 18.5% in December, which follows a 8.8% fall in November.

The trend estimate for total dwellings approved fell 0.4% in December, which follows a 0.8% decrease in November.

  1. Trend break added to 'Private sector houses' trend series for February 2021

The seasonally adjusted estimate for private sector house approvals fell 2.3% in December, to 8,903, following a 2.5% decrease in November. Private sector dwellings excluding houses approved rose 56.6% in December, following an 21.8% fall in November.

The trend estimate for private sector house approvals fell 2.0% in December, which follows a 2.0% decrease in November. Private sector dwellings excluding houses rose 1.3%, following a 0.5% rise in November.

Seasonally adjusted summary, by state

By state, the number of dwellings rose in New South Wales (48.4 per cent), Victoria (20.7 per cent), Queensland (8.3 per cent), and Western Australia (6.4 per cent). Tasmania (-49.7 per cent) and South Australia (-24.6 per cent) recorded decreases.

Approvals for private sector houses fell in South Australia (-7.4%) and New South Wales (-4.2%), while Western Australia (8.2%), Victoria (0.3%), and Queensland rose (0.2%), in seasonally adjusted terms.

Dwellings approved, states and territories, seasonally adjusted
 Private sector housesPrivate sector housesTotal dwelling units approvedTotal dwelling units approved
(no.)Monthly change (%)(no.)Monthly change (%)
New South Wales2,152-4.24,99848.4
Victoria2,8860.35,87420.7
Queensland1,7420.22,7778.3
South Australia756-7.4909-24.6
Western Australia1,0698.21,1416.4
Tasmanianana191-49.7
Northern Territorynananana
Australian Capital Territorynananana
Australia8,903-2.316,55618.5

na not available

Trend summary, by state

Across Australia, the number of dwelling approvals decreased in Northern Territory (-9.8%), Western Australia (-3.3%), Tasmania (-3.3%), Queensland (-2.7%), New South Wales (-2.2%), and South Australia (-1.9%).  Rises were recorded in Australian Capital Territory (13.3%) and Victoria (2.1%), in trend terms.

Approvals for private sector houses fell in South Australia (-2.7%), Victoria (-2.3%), Queensland (-2.2%), New South Wales (-1.4%), and Western Australia (-1.4%), in trend terms.

Dwellings approved, states and territories, trend
 Private sector housesPrivate sector housesTotal dwelling units approvedTotal dwelling units approved
(no.)Monthly change (%)(no.)Monthly change (%)
New South Wales2,204-1.44,358-2.2
Victoria2,927-2.35,5172.1
Queensland1,745-2.22,648-2.7
South Australia798-2.71,014-1.9
Western Australia1,020-1.41,111-3.3
Tasmanianana237-3.3
Northern Territorynana46-9.8
Australian Capital Territorynana49513.3
Australia9,051-2.015,448-0.4

na not available

Value of building approved

Value of building approved, by building type
 Seasonally adjustedSeasonally adjustedTrendTrend
($m)Monthly change (%)($m)Monthly change (%)
New residential building6,6107.26,437-0.7
Alterations and additions to residential building1,0202.71,025-0.1
Total residential building7,6306.67,462-0.6
Non-residential building5,329-1.75,4032.2
Total building12,9583.012,8650.6
  1. Trend break added to 'Total residential' trend series for September 2020 and February 2021.

Value of building approved, seasonally adjusted

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of total building approved rose 3.0% in December, following a 0.6% fall in November. The value of total residential building rose 6.6%, comprising of a 7.2% increase in new residential building, and a 2.7% rise in alterations and additions.

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of non-residential building fell 1.7%, following a 2.2% increase in November.

Value of building approved, trend

The trend estimate for the value of total building approved rose 0.6% December, following a 0.6% rise in November. The value of total residential building decreased 0.6%, comprised by a 0.7% decrease in the value of new residential building approved and a 0.1% fall in the value of alterations and additions.

The trend estimate for the value of non-residential building rose 2.2% in December, following a 2.8% increase in November.

Interactive map

Building approvals data can be viewed on an interactive map.

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.

How to use

Geographic areas

Data downloads

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Dwellings approved

Data files
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Value of building approved

Data files
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Non-residential building approved

Data files
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Chain volume measures

Data files
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Demolitions

Data files

  • Table 87. Number of dwellings approved for demolition, original, states and territories

    Download xlsx [51.94 KB]

  • Table 88. Number of dwellings approved for demolition, by Greater Capital City Statistical Area - original

    Download xlsx [56.58 KB]

Small area datacubes

Data items

Building Approvals: Data items available by Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS)

Data files
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NSW

Data files
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Vic.

Data files
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Qld

Data files
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SA

Data files
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WA

Data files
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Tas.

Data files
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NT

Data files
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ACT

Data files

Validation table

Building Approvals: Data cube validation table

Data files
Download xlsx [45.8 KB]

Small area approvals (.CSV)

Statistical Area Level 2

Data files

Local Government Area

Data files

Demolition approvals (.CSV)

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 time period when using Data Explorer.

Help for: Data Explorer Datasets

Building Approvals by Greater Capital Cities Statistical Area (GCCSA) and above - Number and value of approvals, monthly, July 2001 onwards

Building Approvals by Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) and above - Number and value of approvals, monthly, July 2016 onwards

Building Approvals by Local Government Area (LGA 2021) - Number and value of approvals, monthly, 2021/22

Building Approvals by Local Government Area (LGA 2022) - Number and value of approvals, monthly, 2022/23

GeoPackages

Data files

Dwellings revised by state

In this release, revisions are provided for the time period from July 2021 to November 2022. Further information about potential sources of revisions can be found in the feature article released with the with the February 2016 Building Approvals publication - "Revisions to Building Approval Statistics".

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

Dwellings revised
  2021-222022-23
New South Wales-63714
Victoria-36
Queensland1754
South Australia-34
Western Australia-12
Tasmania-4
Northern Territory--
Australian Capital Territory-222
Total-623346

Post release changes

09/02/2023 - As advertised in the ABS future releases calendar, this additional information release contains the small area excel data cubes and csv files for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial years. 

Article archive

Previous feature articles

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Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8731.0.

Methodology

Building Approvals, Australia methodology, December 2022

Media releases