Housing construction continues to climb

Housing construction continues to climbJune quarter figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show that residential building work continues to strengthen, up 2.2 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms, with nearly $13.40 billion worth of work done.The ABS data shows that residential building activity is 9.6 per cent higher than in the June 2013 quarter.The amount of work done on non-residential buildings such as offices and retail also increased, up 0.5 per cent in the quarter and 2.9 per cent over the year.According to the Housing Industry Association (HIA), the detached house segment was the key driver of growth in residential building during the June 2014 quarter, as opposed to multi-unit buildings, which drove activity in the March quarter.The HIA added that new house building work was responsible for adding 1.6 percentage points to the 2.2 per cent growth in total residential building work done. It predicted an increase in detached house building activity during the quarter in the wake of the previously strong growth shown by the multi-unit segment of the market.The strong residential figures for the quarter were offset by a decline in the amount of engineering work done. The engineering sector, which includes structures such as mines, roads and bridges, was down 3.1 per cent in the quarter in seasonally adjusted terms, with just under $29.73 billion worth of work done.The figures means that total construction work done fell more than expected in the June quarter, down 1.2 per cent to $51.93 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis. Over the 12 months to June 2014, total construction work done declined by 0.6 per cent.