Today’s housing finance data for March contained some good news in the form of a 1.9% seasonally-adjusted lift in commitments for new dwellings (i.e. construction plus new), pointing to ongoing strength housing construction (see below charts).
The news is equally good when measured on a rolling annual basis, with the number of finance commitments for new homes and construction rising by 8.4% over the year (see next chart).
Looking at at the state-by-state breakdown, which is presented below on a rolling annual basis since it is not seasonally adjusted, shows that the lift new home finance continues to be driven by New South Wales and Western Australia, with Queensland and South Australia in a weaker uptrend as well. Victorian new home finance has also shown some improvement recently, but remains more or less range-bound (see next chart).
