ABS Building Approvals managed a small gain of 1% In July, short of the 2% rise that the market was expecting however approvals remain 15% below the same time last year:
The marginal increase actually masked the underlying weakness in the series as the gains were entirely driven by a 77% increase in public sector approvals:
Private sector approvals were down 0.6% with private housing approvals falling 0.2%, remaining in a clear downtrend while private non-housing or medium density approvals were down 1.4%
On a state by state basis, NSW was the only state to record and increase with approvals jumping 5.4% while Victoria (-3.1%), Queensland (-1.8%), South Australia (-8.8%), Western Australia (-1.4) and Tasmania (-26.3%) all went backwards.
Non residential approvals also took a fair hit but at least remain around average levels:
Coupled with the appalling new home sales over the past two months, this data does not provide a positive outlook for the construction industry outside of those involved in mining construction.
Thats because there is an oversupply and its starting to show nation wide
yep, a housing surplus! is anyone going to hold the “housing shortage” BS artists to account for their conjob on the australian people? ……..
If they want to improve new home sales and building approvals all they need to do is drop the price on house and land packages by 20%. problem solved. obviously makes it difficult to justify existing house prices when new ones cost much less.
Agreed GB.
My fiancee and I are looking at a new house as to be honest buying existing stock south of $700k usually results is something need massive amount of repair work in order to return it to a decent state.
People always say that new houses were not built like old ones, but seriously some of the crap built in Melbournes just needs to be pulled down.
It doesn’t look like people are taking up the Bligh stimulus which is interesting. Are the public beyond bribes now?
Impossible
I suspect that the bribe (‘stimu-bribe?’) just isn’t big enough to encourage people to take on the risk of a large mortgage, right now.
Some people must be taking advantage of it, but after a decade of 1st home buyer stimulus, the core market is tapped out….