Renovation activity to increase after 10 year low: HIA
The Housing Industry Association's (HIA) new forecast, the National Outlook, is noting an expectation for renovation activity to pick up over 2013/2014 after a 10 year low.
A higher level of new dwelling commencements was also said to be expected, with green shoots being seen for the majority of states and territories, said HIA senior economist, Shane Garrett.
"The improving level of dwelling commencements achieved in 2012/13 will be consolidated this year before moving up a further leg in 2014/15,"said Garrett.
"Meanwhile, renovations investment is expected to grow in a majority of states and territories after falling to a ten year low during 2012/13," he said.
Growth in housing starts was noted to be concentrated in the larger states - particularly New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, with renovation growth more broadly based.
"Looking further ahead, we see dwelling commencements lifting above the 170,000 per year mark by 2016/17, matching the highs achieved during the post-GFC stimulus," he said.
"Over this timeframe, renovations activity is also likely to increase steadily, reaching $30.3 billion by 2017/18."
Garrett's expectations are that this is on the back of record low interest rates and strong population growth, and points to the importance of planning reforms and infrastructure delivery to facilitate the needed supply.
"There currently exist many bottlenecks around land supply, infrastructure and the time taken to achieve planning approval for new dwellings," he said.