Building Approvals, Australia

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Provides the number of dwelling units and value of buildings approved

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Reference period
March 2023
Released
8/05/2023
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Key statistics

The March 2023 seasonally adjusted estimate: 

  • Total dwellings approved fell 0.1%.
  • Private sector houses fell  2.8%, while private sector dwellings excluding houses rose 5.6%.
  • The value of total building fell 5.9%, while value of new residential building fell 6.4%.
  • The value of non-residential building fell 5.1%.

Dwellings approved

March key figures
 Mar 23 (no.)Monthly change (%)Yearly change (%)
Seasonally adjusted
 Total dwelling units approved12,686-0.1-17.3
 Private sector houses8,312-2.8-15.0
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses4,1685.6-20.9
Trend
 Total dwelling units approved12,611-3.7-21.5
 Private sector houses8,154-1.2-16.3
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses4,217-7.8-27.7
  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 fell 0.1% in March, following a 3.9% rise in February.

The trend estimate for total dwellings approved fell 3.7% in March, which follows a 5.1% decrease in February.

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

The seasonally adjusted estimate for private sector house approvals fell 2.8% in March, to 8,312, following an 11.3% increase in February. Private sector dwellings excluding houses approved rose 5.6% in March, following a 9.7% fall in February.

The trend estimate for private sector house approvals fell 1.2% in March, which follows a 2.3% decrease in February. Private sector dwellings excluding houses fell 7.8%, following a 9.5% fall in February.

Seasonally adjusted summary, by state

By state, total dwelling approvals increased in Western Australia (27.2%), New South Wales (3.1%), and Victoria (1.7%).  Tasmania (-42.1%), South Australia (-19.1%), and Queensland (-6.7%) fell in seasonally adjusted terms.

Approvals for private sector houses  fell in New South Wales (-4.0%), Queensland (-3.9%), Victoria (-3.8%), and South Australia (-0.1%). Western Australia (8.7%) was the only state with a March increase.

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 Wales1,877-4.03,1143.1
Victoria2,743-3.83,9771.7
Queensland1,698-3.92,917-6.7
South Australia746-0.1881-19.1
Western Australia9398.71,21627.2
Tasmanianana197-42.1
Northern Territorynananana
Australian Capital Territorynananana
Australia8,312-2.812,686-0.1

Trend summary, by state

Across Australia, the number of dwelling approvals decreased in Australian Capital Territory (-13.3%), Victoria (-6.5%), New South Wales (-5.1%), South Australia (-0.8%), and Tasmania (-0.4%). The Northern Territory (5.0%), Western Australia (0.5%), and Queensland (0.3%) increased.

Approvals for private sector houses fell in all states: New South Wales (-2.6%), Western Australia (-1.4%), South Australia (-1.3%), Victoria (-0.8%), and Queensland (-0.1%).

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 Wales1,857-2.62,969-5.1
Victoria2,713-0.83,891-6.5
Queensland1,647-0.13,1570.3
South Australia731-1.3935-0.8
Western Australia897-1.41,0700.5
Tasmanianana235-0.4
Northern Territorynana425.0
Australian Capital Territorynana312-13.3
Australia8,154-1.212,611-3.7

Value of building approved

Value of building approved, by building type
 Seasonally adjustedSeasonally adjustedTrendTrend
($m)Monthly change (%)($m)Monthly change (%)
New residential building5,679-6.45,851-1.5
Alterations and additions to residential building942-7.4970-0.9
Total residential building6,622-6.56,822-1.4
Non-residential building5,297-5.15,128-0.4
Total building11,918-5.911,950-1.0
  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 fell 5.9% in March, following a 19.5% increase in February. The value of total residential building approvals fell 6.5%, comprised of a 6.4% decrease in new residential building and a 7.4% fall in alterations and additions.

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of non-residential building decreased 5.1%, following a 41.0% rise in February.

Value of building approved, trend

The trend estimate for the value of total building approved fell 1.0% March, following a 1.9% decrease in February. The value of total residential building decreased 1.4%, comprised of a 1.5% decrease in the value of new residential building approved and a 0.9% fall in the value of alterations and additions.

The trend estimate for the value of non-residential building fell 0.4% in March, following a 0.6% decrease in February.

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 [52.08 KB]

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

    Download xlsx [56.81 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 [48.09 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 February 2023. 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 Wales46119
Victoria203
Queensland103134
South Australia-614
Western Australia-1-30
Tasmania119
Northern Territory--
Australian Capital Territory-155
Total163414

Post release changes

15/05/2023 - As advertised in the ABS future releases calendar, this additional information release contains all Building Approvals small area data components. This is comprised of the small area excel data cubes, csv files, additional Data Explorer links, and GeoPackages for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial years. In addition, a small area interactive story map has been added to illustrate building approvals data by SA2 and LGA, for the current financial year.

Article archive

Previous feature articles

Enquiries

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Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8731.0.

Methodology

Building Approvals, Australia methodology, March 2023

Media releases