“Building approvals rose by 1.8 per cent in the March quarter 2020 compared to the previous quarter, providing further evidence that the housing market had momentum going into 2020,” stated HIA Chief Economist, Tim Reardon.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics released its monthly building approvals data covering all states and territories.
“Due to the lag between purchasing a dwelling and getting a building approval, these results are from sales prior to the restrictions on trade and travel,” added Mr Reardon.
“Prior to March, the housing market was gaining momentum and leading indicators including new home sales, house prices and housing finance data all showed that the market was starting the new decade strongly.
“Approvals were steady across the board with both detached houses and multi-units experiencing quarterly increases of 1.9 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.
“New South Wales had the strongest month for multi-unit approvals since February 2019, to make the March (2020) quarter 28.6 per cent higher than the December 2019 quarter. This suggests that there was another cycle, albeit smaller, of apartment building on the way.
“At least up until the end of March (2020), we were looking at solid home building activity across most regions for 2020,” concluded Mr Reardon.
In seasonally adjusted terms, building approvals for March 2020 quarter increased in New South Wales (+16.5 per cent) and Tasmania (+6.1 per cent), while remaining flat in Western Australia (-1.8 per cent), Victoria (-1.7 per cent) and Queensland (-0.8 per cent). Approvals declined in South Australia (-19.1 per cent). In trend terms, the Northern Territory was flat (0.0 per cent) and the ACT declined by 4.9 per cent.
Source: HIA