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Building Approvals, Australia

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Provides the number of dwelling units and value of buildings approved

Reference period
July 2022
Released
30/08/2022

Key statistics

The July 2022 seasonally adjusted estimate: 

  • Total dwellings approved fell 17.2%.
  • Private sector houses approved rose 0.7%, while private sector dwellings excluding houses fell 43.5%.
  • The value of non-residential building fell 22.6%.

The July 2022 trend estimate: 

  • Total dwellings approved fell 1.5%.
  • Private sector houses approved were flat, while private sector dwellings excluding houses fell 3.6%.
  • The value of non-residential building fell 4.4%.

Dwellings approved

July key figures
  Jul-22 Monthly changeYearly change
  (no.) (%) (%)
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED
 Total dwelling units approved13,595-17.2-25.9
 Private sector houses9,9370.7-17.4
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses3,439-43.5-43.0
TREND
 Total dwelling units approved14,974-1.5-21.1
 Private sector houses9,8420.0-18.0
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses4,871-3.6-27.1

(a) 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 fell 17.2% in July, this follows a 0.6% fall in June.

The trend estimate for total dwellings approved fell 1.5% in July, this follows a 2.0% fall in June.

 

(a) Trend break added to 'Private sector houses' trend series for February 2021

The seasonally adjusted estimate for private sector house approvals rose 0.7% in July, to 9,937, following a 1.6% increase in June. Private sector dwellings excluding houses fell 43.5%, following a 6.1% fall in June.

The trend estimate for private sector house approvals was flat in July, this follows a 0.1% fall in June. Private sector dwellings excluding houses fell 3.6%, following a 4.7% fall in June.


 

Seasonally adjusted summary, by state

By state, the number of dwelling approvals fell in Western Australia (-36.9%), Victoria (-17.4%), New South Wales (-16.2%), Tasmania (-14.5%) and Queensland (-13.7%). South Australia rose 19.2%, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Approvals for private sector houses rose in South Australia (18.6%), Queensland (5.8%) and Victoria (1.5%). Declines were recorded in Western Australia (-8.7%) and New South Wales (-6.3%), in seasonally adjusted terms.

Dwellings approved, states and territories, seasonally adjusted
 Private sector housesPrivate sector housesTotal dwelling unit approvalsTotal dwelling unit approvals
(no.)Monthly change (%)(no.)Monthly change (%)
New South Wales2,215-6.33,571-16.2
Victoria3,2081.54,236-17.4
Queensland2,0545.82,837-13.7
South Australia94918.61,14919.2
Western Australia1,099-8.71,204-36.9
Tasmanianana260-14.5
Northern Territorynananana
Australian Capital Territorynananana
Australia9,9370.713,595-17.2

 

Trend summary, by state

Across Australia, the number of dwelling approvals decreased in Victoria (-3.1%), New South Wales (-2.5%) and Queensland (-0.1%). Rises were recorded in Northern Territory (5.2%), Tasmania (3.1%), South Australia (2.0%), Australian Capital Territory (0.7%) and Western Australia (0.6%), in trend terms.

Approvals for private sector houses fell in New South Wales (-1.8%) and Western Australia (-0.6%). South Australia (3.4%), Victoria (0.6%) and Queensland (0.3%) rose, in trend terms.

Dwellings approved, states and territories, trend
 Private sector housesPrivate sector housesTotal dwelling unit approvalsTotal dwelling unit approvals
(no.)Monthly change (%)(no.)Monthly change (%)
New South Wales2,243-1.83,923-2.5
Victoria3,1440.64,657-3.1
Queensland2,0470.33,082-0.1
South Australia8733.41,0872.0
Western Australia1,178-0.61,4990.6
Tasmanianana2693.1
Northern Territorynana615.2
Australian Capital Territorynana4420.7
Australia9,8420.014,974-1.5

 

Value of building approved

Value of building approved, by building type
 Seasonally adjustedSeasonally adjustedTrendTrend
 ($m)Monthly change (%)($m)Monthly change (%)
New residential building5885.1-6.96,250.7-0.2
Alterations and additions to residential building996.1-1.31,013.60.8
Total residential building6,881.2-6.17,264.4-0.1
Non-residential building3,945.6-22.64,479.3-4.4
Total building10,826.7-12.911,743.7-1.8

 

(a) 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 fell 12.9% in July, following a 6.2% fall in June. The value of total residential building fell 6.1%, comprising of a 6.9% decline in new residential building, and a 1.3% decrease in alterations and additions.

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of non-residential building fell 22.6%, driven by falls in both private and public sector approvals in July.

Value of building approved, trend

The trend estimate for the value of total building approved fell 1.8% in July. The value of total residential building fell 0.1%, following a 0.1% rise in June. The fall in total residential building value was driven by a 0.2% decrease in the value of new residential building approved, while the value of alterations and additions rose by 0.8%.

The trend estimate for the value of non-residential building fell 4.4%, following a 3.7% decrease in June.

Interactive map

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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

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

Datacubes

I-note

Small area datacubes

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

Data notes

This publication provides the number of dwelling units and value of buildings approved released in Building Approvals, Australia on 30 August 2022.

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 Areas Level 2 and Local Government Areas. Release dates are published under the “Forthcoming Issues” section of the publication and in the ABS Release Calendar.

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

Dwellings revised by State

In this release, revisions are provided for the time period from July 2021 to June 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:

 2021-22
New South Wales247
Victoria-26
Queensland35
South Australia-
Western Australia5
Tasmania13
Northern Territory-
Australian Capital Territory-
Total274

Enquiries

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Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8731.0.

Post release changes

06/09/2022 - As advertised in the main release of this publication on 30 August 2022, this additional information release contains the small area Excel datacubes and CSV files for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial years.

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