Building Approvals, Australia

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Provides the number of dwelling units and value of buildings approved

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Reference period
November 2020
Released
7/01/2021
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Key statistics

  • The seasonally adjusted estimate for total dwellings approved rose 2.6% in November.
  • Private sector houses rose 6.1%, in seasonally adjusted terms, while private sector dwellings excluding houses fell 3.9%.
  • The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of non-residential building approved fell 27.4%.

Dwellings approved

November key figures
  Nov 20Oct 20 to Nov 20Nov 19 to Nov 20
  no.%%
Seasonally adjusted
 Total dwelling units approved17 205 2.6  15.0
 Private sector houses11 489 6.1  33.6
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses  5 377-3.9-13.0

The number of dwellings approved in Australia rose 2.6% in November, in seasonally adjusted terms. Private sector houses increased by 6.1% in November, to a 21-year high. The rise in November was driven by strength in Queensland and South Australia. Private sector dwellings excluding houses fell 3.9%, and remain at subdued levels.

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 Wales2,2960.74,8341.5
Victoria3,4801.54,838-4.6
Queensland2,45517.03,2486.5
South Australia8422.81,12018.8
Western Australia1,9887.52,294-5.4
Tasmanianana280-0.4
Northern Territorynananana
Australian Capital Territorynananana
Australia11,4896.117,2052.6

Dwelling approvals rose in South Australia (18.8%), Queensland (6.5%) and New South Wales (1.5%). Falls were recorded in Western Australia (5.4%), Victoria (4.6%) and Tasmania (0.4%).

Approvals for private sector houses rose in all states: Queensland (17.0%), Western Australia (7.5%), South Australia (2.8%), Victoria (1.5%) and New South Wales (0.7%).

Value of building approved

Value of building approved, by building type
Seasonally adjusted
$mMonthly % change
New residential building5,833.55.7
Alterations and additions to residential building857.25.6
Total residential building6,690.85.7
Non-residential building3,402.7-27.4
Total building10,093.5-8.4

The value of total building approved fell 8.4% in November, in seasonally adjusted terms. Non-residential building drove the decrease, falling 27.4%, having risen 59.3% in October.

The value of total residential building increased 5.7% in November. This was driven by a rise in both the value of new residential building (5.7%) and the value of residential alterations and additions (5.6%). The value of residential alterations and additions reached an all-time high in November ($857.2m).

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.

Data files

Datacubes

Private residential alterations and additions, July 2016 - November 2020 - States and Territories

Data files
Download xls [105.5 KB]

I-note

Small area datacubes

Data files

ABS.Stat datasets

Help for: ABS.Stat 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 2011 onwards

Building Approvals by Local Government Area (LGA 2019) - Number and value of approvals, monthly, 2019/20

Building Approvals by Local government Area (LGA 2020) - Number and value of approvals, monthly, 2020/21

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.

How to use

Notes

Data notes

This publication provides the number of dwelling units and value of buildings approved released in Building Approvals, Australia on 7 January 2021.

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 November

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.

Dwelling approvals rose 2.6% in November, to the highest number recorded since July 2018. This follows the relaxation of COVID-19 related restrictions in all states and territories. Record low interest rates and Federal and state-based incentives continue to provide support for the detached housing and renovations sectors. Seasonally adjusted private house approvals rose to the highest level since December 1999, while the value of alterations and additions recorded an all-time high in November. The value of non-residential building fell 27.4% in November, following a 59.3% rise in October. The non-residential building series has been quite volatile since the COVID-19 pandemic, with an increase in public sector projects yet to offset a sizable reduction in private investment.

Data collection activities continued to be largely unaffected in the November 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 October 2020. Further information about potential sources of revisions can be found in the feature article released with the January 2016 Building Approvals publication - "Revisions to Building Approval Statistics".

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

 

Dwellings 2019-202020-21
NSW            58         242
Vic.              5         234
Qld              1           28
SA              6           27
WA              -           43
Tas.              -            -1
NT              -             -
ACT              -           12
Total            70         585

 

Inquiries

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070. The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS will handle any personal information that you provide to us.

History of changes

14/01/2021 - As advertised in the main release of this publication on 7 January 2021, this additional information release contains the small area Excel datacubes and CSV files for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years. 

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8731.0

Article archive

Previous feature articles

Methodology

Building Approvals, Australia methodology, November 2020

Media releases