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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
May 2023
Released
3/07/2023
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Key statistics

The May 2023 seasonally adjusted estimate: 

  • Total dwellings approved rose 20.6%.
  • Private sector houses rose 0.9%, while private sector dwellings excluding houses rose 59.4%.
  • The value of non-residential buildings rose 6.6%, while value of new residential building rose 17.1%.
  • The value of total building rose 11.1%.

Dwellings approved

May key figures
 May 23 (no.)Monthly change (%)Yearly change (%)
Seasonally adjusted
 Total dwelling units approved15,03220.6-9.8
 Private sector houses8,1350.9-15.3
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses6,72259.4-0.1
Trend
 Total dwelling units approved13,3460.8-15.8
 Private sector houses8,069-0.6-17.3
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses5,1253.7-10.5
  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 20.6% in May, following a 6.8% decrease in April.

The trend estimate for total dwellings approved rose 0.8% in May, which follows a 0.1% fall in April.

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

The seasonally adjusted estimate for private sector house approvals rose 0.9% in May, to 8,135 dwellings, following a 3.0% fall in April. Private sector dwellings excluding houses approved rose 59.4% in May, following a 13.2% fall in April.

The trend estimate for private sector house approvals fell 0.6% in May, after a 1.0% decrease in April. Private sector dwellings excluding houses rose 3.7%, following a 2.1% rise in April.

Seasonally adjusted summary, by state

By state, total dwelling approvals rose in New South Wales (52.9%), Tasmania (41.1%), Victoria (15.0%), and Queensland (0.9%).  Western Australia (-11.1%), and South Australia (-4.8%) fell in seasonally adjusted terms. 

Approvals for private sector houses fell in South Australia (-7.2%), Western Australia (-4.5%), New South Wales, and Queensland (-1.8%). Victoria (7.3%) increased in May.

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 Wales1,814-3.46,50552.9
Victoria2,6797.33,76415.0
Queensland1,565-1.82,3110.9
South Australia778-7.21,019-4.8
Western Australia917-4.5994-11.1
Tasmanianana29241.1
Northern Territorynananana
Australian Capital Territorynananana
Australia8,1350.915,03220.6

Trend summary, by state

Across Australia, the number of dwelling approvals rose in New South Wales (11.2%), Northern Territory (2.3%), South Australia (1.5%), and Tasmania (0.8%). Australian Capital Territory (-32.7%), Queensland (-7.6%), Victoria (-3.9%), and Western Australia (-0.1%) fell in trend terms.

Approvals for private sector houses fell in in New South Wales (-1.3%), Queensland (-1.2%), and Victoria (-0.7%). South Australia (1.2%) and Western Australia (0.2%) both recorded an increase.

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 Wales1,817-1.34,96111.2
Victoria2,613-0.73,443-3.9
Queensland1,601-1.22,438-7.6
South Australia7881.21,0101.5
Western Australia9190.21,075-0.1
Tasmanianana2450.8
Northern Territorynana442.3
Australian Capital Territorynana136-32.7
Australia8,069-0.613,3460.8

Value of building approved

Value of building approved, by building type
 Seasonally adjustedSeasonally adjustedTrendTrend
($m)Monthly change (%)($m)Monthly change (%)
New residential building6,69017.16,1270.3
Alterations and additions to residential building1,0444.31,0160.8
Total residential building7,73515.27,1430.4
Non-residential building6,7036.66,3254.6
Total building14,43711.113,4682.3
  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 rose 11.1% in May, following a 1.7% rise in April. The value of total residential building approvals rose 15.2%, comprised of a 17.1% increase in new residential building, and a 4.3% rise in alterations and additions. 

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of non-residential building increased 6.6%, following a 10.0% rise in April.

Value of building approved, trend

The trend estimate for the value of total building approved rose 2.3% in May, following a 2.3% increase in April. The value of total residential building rose 0.4%, comprised of a 0.3% rise in the value of new residential building and a 0.8% rise in the value of alterations and additions.

The trend estimate for the value of non-residential building rose 4.6% in May, following a 5.0% increase in April.

Interactive map

Building approvals data can be viewed on an interactive map.

Note that the interactive map will be offline soon after the small area publication release and will be refreshed with the current month's data within 5 business days.

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 [52.09 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 [49.7 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 April 2023. The revision table below for this month has higher than usual revisions in New South Wales, mostly driven by approvals for other residential jobs from earlier periods. 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 Wales241486
Victoria-25149
Queensland1449
South Australia-36
Western Australia-4718
Tasmania--
Northern Territory--
Australian Capital Territory--
Total-371708

Post release changes

10/07/2023 - 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.

04/07/2023 - A post release correction was applied to the number of dwelling revisions for Victoria and Western Australia. Financial year cells now correctly sum to results in the Total row.

Data Notes

Review of seasonal adjustment

A detailed review of seasonal factors and the seasonal adjustment process has been conducted this month, in accordance with our seasonal adjustment policy (see Methodology for more details). The outcome of the review has resulted in a small number of changes for a handful of series. Further information on seasonal adjustment estimates can be found in the ABS Information paper Time Series Analysis Frequently Asked Questions, 2003.

Article archive

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Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8731.0.

Methodology

Building Approvals, Australia methodology, May 2023

Media releases