New house starts decline for seventh straight quarter: ABS

On a seasonally adjusted basis, new house starts declined by 2.5% in the September quarter to 22,290 following a fall of 1.6% in the June quarter, according to the latest dwelling commencement figures released by the ABS.

This was the seventh straight quarter that new housing starts have declined, reflecting the current depressed state of new house construction.

The last time new house starts increased was in the December 2009 quarter, when they rose to just under 29,900 new starts.

In raw terms, the largest rises in private sector house commencements were experienced in the Northern Territory (11.4%), Queensland (10.8%) and Western Australia (5.3%), while the largest falls occurred in Tasmania (-17.8%), South Australia (-14.9%) and the Australian Capital Territory (-12.1%).

The more volatile other residential building (flats, units, attached townhouses, villas and terrace houses, etc) declined by 12.2% in the September quarter to 12,198 properties following a fall of 6.1% in the June quarter.

Overall, the construction of new housing fell by 6.2% in the September quarter.

In raw terms, the total number of dwelling units commenced fell 3.3% in the September quarter to 37,000.

Queensland (+16.4%) and the Northern Territory (+30.7%) were the only states or territories to experience an increase in dwelling unit commencements this quarter.

The largest decreases were seen in Tasmania (-18.5) and the Australian Capital Territory (-9.5%)