Has record dwelling construction kept pace with population growth?

Wednesday 12 December 2018

On Tuesday, the ABS has released the September quarter property data showing the total number of dwellings in each state. Although this series only dates back to September 2011, it is arguably the best data to use when assessing actual dwelling supply, since unlike the ABS’ various quarterly housing construction data (i.e. approvals, commencements and completions) it takes into account demolitions as well as new additions.

Below are charts plotting annual population change (current to March 2018) against annual net dwelling additions nationally and across each of the major markets:

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.