Private sector house approvals trend up 1.5% in May: ABS

Larry SchlesingerDecember 7, 2020

The total number of private sector house approvals rose 1.5% in trend terms in May, according to the latest ABS building approvals data.

This contributed to the 1.0% increase in the total number of dwelling units approved.

On a seasonally-adjusted basis, private sector house approvals rose 2.5% to 8,113 dwellings to be up 11.6% for the year.

"The number of approvals to build new homes is currently above the decade average and actually 4% stronger than the 5-year average," notes CommSec economist Savanth Sebastian.

abs_buildign_approvals

Source: ABS

Unit approvals fell 9.8% to 5,156 to be down 24.5% for the year.

Yesterday, the HIA earmarked a solid recovery in the residential building sector when it reported that new home sales ncreased by 1.6% in May, taking monthly sales back to their highest level in 18 months.

The ABS figures show that dwelling approvals increased in May in the Australian Capital Territory (4.1%), Tasmania (3.6%), Western Australia (2.7%), South Australia (1.8%), Victoria (1.2%) and New South Wales (0.8%) but decreased in the Northern Territory (-4.9%) and Queensland (-0.5%) in trend terms.

In trend terms, approvals for private sector houses increased for the six consecutive month in May.

Of the states and territories, New South Wales (2.6%), Victoria (2.3%) and South Australia (2.2%) experienced the largest rises in private sector house approvals. 

The trend value of total building approved rose 1.9% in May and has risen for 16 months. The value of residential building was flat while non-residential building rose 4.1%.

This media release focuses on movements in the trend as seasonally adjusted month to month movements can be highly volatile and are not necessarily indicative of the underlying behaviour in approvals data.

Larry Schlesinger

Larry Schlesinger was a property writer at Property Observer

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