ABS October building approvals are out and the numbers are ugly:
\
Just two months ago we had a big pop in approvals and is gone with interest. Here’s the chart:
If we look at the components, it’s also ugly:
The falls in non-housing construction are bad:
But the falls in housing construction are terrible:
We are rapidly approaching the GFC low for residential approvals and building for commercial got monstered for the second month running. We’ve still got major capex of course, but this weakness is quite worrying, especially for non-mining states. Here is the state chart:
Pop. That’s the sound of the Melbourne building bubble bursting, down 18% mom. I suppose there’s some upside to this, that oversupply won’t be as bad. But it’s far too late for it not to be dreadful anyway. Looks like developers just woke up to that fact.
