Home building approvals way off the pace, but increase from decade-low levels in May
Building approvals for new homes increased by 5.5 per cent in May 2024, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed.
While an upswing, predominantly led by Western Australia, there have only been 163,760 total dwelling approvals over the most recent 12 months to May 2024, well below the 240,000 new homes needed each year from 1 July 2024 to achieve National Cabinet’s goal.
Approvals in the three months to May 2024 are down by 1.5 per cent compared to the same period in the previous year.
HIA Chief Economist Tim Reardon said the low approvals numbers indicate a slow start to building 1.2 million homes over the next five years.
“Increasing the number of homes built will be necessary to address longstanding housing shortages," Reardon said.
“Addressing tax, planning, land and regulatory constraints will be necessary to increasing the supply of homes in Australia."
Some 14,180 residential building approvals came in May, 9,260 of which were for detached houses and 4,920 for multi-units.
Multi-unit approvals increased by 14.3 per cent in May from very low levels in recent months. Over the three months to May 2024, multi-unit approvals remain 19.1 per cent lower than in the same period in the previous year.
Western Australia led the way in approvals. In the three months to May, WA approvals were up 51.1 per cent compared to the same period 12 months ago. They were followed by Victoria (+10 per cent).
New South Wales saw the second largest decline (-21.6 per cent) only behind the Northern Territoy (-34.3 per cent), while South Australia (-6 per cent) and Queensland (-4.8 per cent), saw modest drop offs.
UDIA NSW CEO, Stuart Ayres, says the 43,000 approvals in NSW are an early warning sign that Minns Government has a lot more to do.”
“Housing approvals are the canary in the coalmine and today’s data shows NSW is not refilling the pipeline of housing with enough approvals, which will make it difficult to achieve our state’s ambitious housing target of 75,600 a year and today’s data revealed that, day-by-day, that goal is getting more difficult to realise," Ayres said.
"This pressure is being felt across the whole state, and across all typologies."
