Dwelling approvals have risen seven per cent in August, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data released yesterday shows, after a 7.4 per cent decline in July.
Over the year to August 2022, new home building approvals are still down by 13 per cent.
Approvals for private sector houses rose by 5.8 per cent, following three months of stable movements.
“Approvals in the more volatile private sector dwellings excluding houses series rose by 9.4 per cent, following a 14.6 per cent fall in July,” Daniel Rossi, ABS head of construction statistics said.
Maree Kilroy, the Senior Economist at Oxford Economics Australia, anticipates that the initiation of national dwellings will fall below 150,000 in the current fiscal year.
“The mix of higher interest rates, delays and rising build costs have made it a challenging environment for new home buyers and developers alike,” she said.
“While movement is happening on the housing policy front, planning lags mean it will take until the back half of the decade to see an activity boost.”
Prof Mathew Aitchison, CEO of Building 4.0 CRC, a research initiative co-funded by industry and the Australian Government, said for Australia to arrest the housing crisis we need a “multi-platform blitz”.
“We have the technology available to build better, faster, more sustainably and cheaper and draw on examples of success globally and locally,” he said.
“A good example is Canada’s Intelligent City. This company provides seamless and transparent design to deliver mass timber housing solutions. Starting in 2008 with architectural and planning services, the company has expanded their value chain to include manufacturing and automated assembly.
“In Australia, a notable example is Pt Blink’s multi-sided digital platform, which offers a ‘marketplace’ for offsite construction. With Pt Blink’s digital platform, owners and developers can deliver multi-storey buildings as a kit of configurable parts manufactured offsite and integrated very quickly and safely onsite by ecosystem partners.
“We know a crisis is rarely caused by a single factor and usually involves a coalescence of critical issues.
“So too the solutions to our housing and construction crises will involve a combination of best thinking, research and piloting, and sharing of learnings across the industry.”
Total dwelling approvals were mixed overall, with rises recorded in Victoria (+22.2 per cent), New South Wales (+12.5 per cent), and Western Australia (+12.3 per cent). Meanwhile, falls were recorded in Queensland (-26.9 per cent), Tasmania (-10.1 per cent), and South Australia (-6.9 per cent).
Approvals for private sector houses rose in all states: Western Australia (+13.0 per cent), Victoria (+9.9 per cent), South Australia (+4.7 per cent), Queensland (+3.1 per cent), and New South Wales (+2.4 per cent).
Additionally, the ABS released its report on lending indicators, revealing a 2.5 per cent increase in new home loans for owner-occupiers in August. However, this remains 12.3 per cent lower compared to last year.
“Since February 2023, the number of new owner‑occupier loans appears to have returned to levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic began, well below the peak in January 2021,” Mish Tan, ABS head of finance statistics, said.
“Since November 2022, the number of refinanced loans has been above the number of new owner‑occupier loan commitments. Refinancing has remained at unprecedented levels as households continued to seek better loans amid a high interest rate environment,” Ms Tan said.
The number of refinanced owner-occupier loan commitments between lenders fell 5.4 per cent to 26,539, after reaching an all-time high last month.